HAYWARD — A Chabot College student journalist died while covering the war in the Ukraine; now, his mother is on a quest to get her son’s body back to the United States.
In a post on a fundraising site, Christine Cook said the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv informed her July 26 that 41-year-old Titawny Cook had been found dead. Russia invaded the nation in 2022.
“I am devastated and full of loss over my son’s death,” Christine Cook wrote on an online fundraiser intended to pay for Titawny Cook’s return.
The fundraiser is seeking to collect $25,000. By Friday at 2 p.m., it had raised $15,600. To donate, go to https://gofund.me/f56d51a7.
“I am desperately just trying to get his body back to the United States,” Christine Cook wrote. “I need your help to do so.”
Christine Cook wrote that her son’s death came amid “suspicious circumstances” and that his body was found 20 minutes from his apartment in Kyiv. Titawny Cook, a former U.S. Marine who served a tour of duty in Iraq, went to the war-torn country last year.
“Even though he served in the military, the information I am getting is they are nicely telling me that it is on me to bring him home since he was not on active duty,” Christine Cook wrote. “With Ukraine being at war with Russia, their airports are closed. The only way to get Titawny home is to ground transport him to another country and then fly him from there to here.”
Jared Goyette, a journalist working in the country as an English editor for a Ukranian news site, said a violent death in Kyiv is rare these days.
“It’s a very unusual death in the Ukraine,” Goyette said. “The death rate in Kyiv has been going down steadily. There are things to worry about, but Kyiv is relatively pretty safe given its size. I’ve been talking to people about (the death), and the general consensus has been, ‘What happened?’ ”
Titawny Cook’s decision to trave to the Ukraine in hopes of covering the front lines of the war was recognized by the Chabot Spectator, the college’s student newspaper, last October. He told the paper that he “always wanted to come to Ukraine” and that it was a “goal of mine to come to this country in this time of war.”
Chabot College instructor Tom Lothian said Cook was in his class for two semesters beginning in 2023 and that he was involved in radio and TV in addition to being an editor for the campus paper.
“When I knew him as a student, he was very passionate about trying to fulfill and make something of his life,” Lothian said. “He wanted to do something that he thought was meaningful and important and big.”
As a result, Lothian said he sponsored the credential that allowed Cook to cover the war.
“He had his heart set on doing this. He wanted to make a difference. He really did,” Lothian said. “When I spoke with his mom — I have some regret about doing (the sponsorship) because now he’s dead — but she was very supportive of the understanding that this is what he wanted to do. He was never happier than when he did this.”
Goyette said that the war in Ukraine has brought about a “cultural renaissance” among its people, seen and heard in several forms, particularly underground music.
“The way your culture forms amid conflict is a form of resistance,” Goyette said. “He was documenting that is really important. That’s what he was doing. He wasn’t at the front (lines), but he had ambitions of getting there. But history and the stories of culture amid the violence are part of how the fight will be told. (Cook) was in the middle of that work, and it’s important work.”
Christine Cook said that the process of trying to get her son’s body back has been filled with panic-inducing moments that the support from the community has helped her overcome.
“The continued outpouring of love and support from so many people is beyond what I could ever imagine,” she wrote. “To all of you I wake up with hope and gratitude.”
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