Franko loved more than once. The collection “Faded Leaves” is dedicated to the feeling of love.
During the wedding ceremony with Olha Khoruzhyvska, the groom was absent for a long time. Ivan forgot about the wedding because he found an old book and was copying a rare poem from it.
Their marriage was a conceptual one, as they united the two halves of Ukraine – Galicia and Naddniprianshchyna. The wedding took place in Kyiv, and almost all the toasts were “To a united Ukraine”.
Ivan Franko lived for less than 60 years, of which he spent more than 40 years in active creative activity. 40 years – 6000 works. This means that every 2 days a new work came from the writer’s pen.
Franko knew 19 languages.
Franko wore embroidered shirts both on weekdays and holidays. He was the first man to wear an embroidered shirt with a classic European suit, setting a new fashion.
In his youth, he went through several imprisonments – he was systematically hypothermic. His paralysed hands since 1908 were the result of this.
He had secretaries who helped him write.
He died alone in his home. Before the First World War, his daughter went to Kyiv to visit her relatives and ended up on the other side of the front line, and his wife was hospitalised in a psychiatric hospital. His sons Petro and Taras were at war, and Andriy had died before the war. It is unclear how Franko managed alone in the house with his paralysed arms. Sometimes some people helped him, but not always.
Franko did not lose faith, worked till the last minute, kept his will to live, and waited for spring. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize, but his death prevented him. He did not reach the age of 60, and one can only guess how much more he could have done.
