On February 24, I woke up at 6 am, as usual, to get my kids ready for the kindergarten, but saw a missed call at 5 am from my sister. Realizing that nothing good could possibly happen at that time, I called back with trembling hands and heard something that the brain still refuses to fully comprehend- “The war has begun!”
We lived on the 24th floor and the windows faced Bucha and Irpen, the sounds coming from there seemed to be like from the movies about the Second World War…
From that day on, my children and I started sleeping on the same bed in the same room. The next day we decided to go down to the bomb shelter near the house, but from the cold, panic and lack of living conditions, we realized that we won’t mange staying there. Running with two small children, one of whom has a disability, from the 24th floor with each air alarm was physically impossible…
So we decided to arrange a module in the apartment according to the rule of two walls. The children were so scared, we even ran to the toilet in a group each time. And they went to sleep always holding hands…
The last straw was 10 days later, when I wanted to order medicine for Kira and the mediator said that there would be no more supplies, and these medicines are vital for my child, there are no substitutes for those. Then I started looking for options.
We were invited to Cyprus.
Realizing that anything could happen on the road, I collected the main things – medicines and specialised food for Kira. Our whole life fit in one backpack and a sports bag over the shoulder…
Our fellow volunteer was going to Uzhgorod for humanitarian aid and agreed to take us. The road was not easy. Hundreds of checkpoints, kilometers of traffic jams. I burst into tears as we left the house. At the first checkpoint near the house, after checking everything, a guy from the ??ТРО?territory defense took out of his pocket a bar of chocolate with the words “Take care of children, they are our future.”
We were driving to Khmelnytsky for a day, where we spent the night in the village in a hostel. Then our road to Uzhhorod took another 24 hours, where we also stayed for the night. Then in the morning we went to the border with Slovakia. We crossed it relatively quickly. And here we are in Slovakia, thinking what to do next.
It was at this time when a friend from Germany texted me and sent the options for living in a camp in her city. I agreed to try. Volunteers at the border asked of our plans, I told them our direction, but it turned out that the direction is not popular and no one ever goes there. However, one of the volunteers asked to wait and said that he will definitely find someone now. After 2 hours of waiting, he was really able to find people who brought animal aid from Germany and drove in the opposite direction, in the direction we needed. So we got in their car and we had another 12 hours of travelling ahead, Slovakia-Czech Republic-Germany…
And then Kira got very sick, having a fever of 40 degrees Celsius from exhaustion and overstrain.
We now live in a separate apartment in the city. Kira has the necessary medication and is undergoing rehabilitation. Children breathe fresh air and play on playgrounds.
So far, I have done everything I can for my children – they live without fear and smile again. But sometimes they still ask to go home, constantly reminiscing about it…??
