A 95-year-old woman who weathered tragedies like Nazi occupation and the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine was struck and killed by a car while crossing the street near her Brooklyn home on Thursday.
Mayya Gil had been crossing Cropsey Avenue in front of her apartment in Bensonhurst near 24th Avenue around 12:40 p.m. with her home health aide when a cargo van took a left turn and rammed into them, according to the New York Police Department.
The health aide was hospitalized in stable condition, but Gil succumbed to her injuries and died. The NYPD added that the driver was not arrested or charged.
Gil originally moved to the country’s capital Kyiv with her mother and brother when she was 12 years old to evade the Nazis that had invaded Khmelnytskyi, her home city in western Ukraine, as reported in a 2020 New York Times article. There, she would later meet her husband Vilyam and eventually have her twin daughters while living under Soviet rule.
When the Chernobyl nuclear disaster unfolded in 1986, one of Gil’s daughters picked up and moved to New York City. Six years later, the rest of the family followed and quickly found their roots in Bensonhurst.
Larisa, the daughter who spearheaded her family’s immigration to the United States once she left home first, died at the age of 58 in 2013 following a secret fight against late-stage pancreatic cancer. Gil’s family originally couldn’t afford a burial plot, so they were included in the New York Times’ “Neediest Case Fund” to help give Larisa the resting plot she deserved.
Gil’s husband Vilyam passed in 2020 after contracting COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. Gil was spurred forward by her dedication to her family and involvement in the Bensonhurst community, including as an active member of the Jewish Community Center in her neighborhood, her daughter Irina Lizunova told the Gothamist.
“Everybody knows her. She was a very active lady,” Lizunova told the outlet.
“She basically raised me since day one. She was the kindest, most generous person I’ve ever met. Nothing gave her more joy than just being around her family,” Gil’s granddaughter Natasha Famighetti added.
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