May, 1986 

To the People of Chernobyl, 
        I don’t know your language but even if I did there still would be no words that could begin to alleviate your sorrow and shock and suffering. Not being one of the affluent, I have no funds to send. Not having requisite technical skills, I cannot offer physical services. Being simply a mother and an artist the only offering I can make comes from my soul – empathy. 
        Let us hope the structure at Chernobyl, if encased in concrete as has been suggested as a possibility, will be the first and last monument of its kind to the Nuclear Age and man’s cerebral development made precarious by his continuing failure to develop beyond the primitive tribal mentality of “them” and “us,” a visual spectre reminding mankind in a materialistic age of his tenuous position on Planet Earth, an enduring spectre that won’t be glossed over as quickly as did the physical environment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
        Let us use the tragedy there in helping the world re-think nuclear policy. Making meaning out of suffering is sometimes the only way to survive. Perhaps then, your suffering will not have been in vain. Perhaps, after all is said and done, Chernobyl will have helped save the world.

*****

It was very exciting to get a response from a church in Moscow!