Family Story
Larisa Fedosiivna is 83 years old. Katerina, her daughter, is 53 years old, and her husband Ruslan is 61 years old. The family used to be large and close-knit. They lived with two sons of Katerina and Ruslan, their wives, their daughter, and Katerina’s brother. When the war started, the village was occupied, and they couldn’t leave. There were intense bombings, and the family sought shelter in the basement located right under their house. When the bombings subsided, they would venture outside to cook food on a fire. There was no electricity or gas; they had disappeared almost immediately when the bombings began.
On March 9, the whole family, except for Raisa, Katerina, and Ruslan, miraculously managed to escape the occupation with the help of volunteers. Katerina, her husband, and mother stayed behind because they had a goat, chickens, three dogs, and five cats. They couldn’t abandon them. On March 10, the family was in the basement when they heard a terrible explosion. They emerged from the basement and saw their summer kitchen and garage engulfed in flames. They realized they couldn’t stay in the house any longer, and soon after, a rocket hit the house. They remember everything burning, including the fields.
The Russians bombarded the village with phosphorus bombs. On April 7, when Kyiv region was liberated, the family went to their relatives in Kirovohrad. Katerina’s younger son joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the older one found a job in Kirovohrad. Katerina, Ruslan, and Raisa stayed there for a while but decided to return to their land, to plant a garden and figure out how to move forward.
They came back to their village, with nowhere else to go, and set up a room in a shed where they currently live. They go to a friend’s place to wash themselves. Raisa, the grandmother, cannot walk there, so they heat water for her and bathe her in a basin right in the room. Currently, Katerina, Ruslan, and Raisa have nowhere to live. The rest of the family lives in different cities in their own apartments. Raisa, the grandmother, is a child of war. She was born during World War II and hardly remembers the war itself, only from the stories told by her parents. She worries a lot about her youngest grandson, who is currently at war. She remembers him being a kind boy who constantly helped his grandmother. She prays for his survival in this terrible war.
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