It is always painful to lose your loved ones, but during the war, such an event, tragic in itself, receives additional bitter details. What is it like to bury your loved [husband] during a bombing? Or trying to pull him out from under the rubble — hoping that he is still breathing?
The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has presented a new collection of stories on a very sensitive topic: about women who lost their husbands. About the widows. The selection of stories has been timed to 23 June — the International Widows’ Day, which is dedicated to raising awareness about the situation of widows and their children.
You can watch and listen to the stories from the collection at the link
The husband of Natalia Dedova, editor at Sigma TV channel in Mariupol and the founder of the Marathon of Good charity project, died under the rubble of a house. She could not get there again. “Viktor did not let me go and visit our flat again. He did not want me to see all this,” Natalia says.
At the time of the airstrike on the Mariupol Drama Theatre, Natalia and her son were in the theatre box, while her husband Mykhailo was in the nearby field kitchen outdoor. They spoke on the phone three minutes before the tragedy. After the explosion, his body was found but could not be dug out. Only the head.
Viktoria’s car was shelled by enemy soldiers on the way. Her husband was shot in the head. She got out of the car and said to the Kadyrov soldiers, “You shot up my car. You killed my husband. What am I supposed to do now?”
Liliya heard a terrible sound that was approaching. Then an explosion followed and raised pieces of glass and stones in the air. At that moment, her husband ran into the room with the words, “I am injured.” Half an hour for a person who is dying and who realizes that he is dying — is it a lot or a little?
During a pause between the shelling attacks, Evelina’s husband went to see what happened to their garage and wanted to close the gate. Suddenly, a huge explosion rang out. At the same moment, the woman felt that her husband was no more. His body lay almost in the same place until the end of April. Those savages took out paper notes from people’s pockets, on which it was indicated who that person was…
These and other stories of women who lost their husbands can be found in the Museum’s new collection.
Every story about the war matters. To preserve the memory for a better future, share your story on the portal of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation https://civilvoicesmuseum.org/ or via the toll-free hotline 0 800 509 001.
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