“It was scary, but my mother did not want to go anywhere”

I was born here, grew up here, got married and moved to Mariupol. It was my mother and father who lived here. We used to come here regularly when my grandmother was still alive.

Before my grandmother died, she signed her small house over to me. This is how I got my own property. We used to plant a vegetable garden and we were constantly here. We worked at Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and came here for the weekend. We came here regularly.

When we retired, my father died and my mother was old then, over 80. I then stayed here with her all the time because she could not be left behind.

And then the war began. In 2014, there was shelling. It was scary. We were hiding, some of us in the cellars, others in some corner [shelter]. But we still lived here. My mother didn't want to go anywhere. She even did not want to hear about us taking her away. Then, in 2015, when it started [shelling] badly and the house was damaged, when windows were blown out, plaster was coming off [the walls/ceiling], we barely managed until my son came and took us away, evacuated us.

My mom was crying every day asking to take her back. She could not accept the situation, that she had left her house, that she had left everything. Perhaps, this was what shortened her life...

I was also very worried and stressed, with my nerves on the edge. I went through cancer then. That was probably the reason why I got the disease. I went through six rounds of chemotherapy treatment. We spent 2016 and 2017 in hospitals. While I was coming through the disease, my mother died.

When my husband was taking care about us, especially me during my treatment, he also cooked, cleaned and washed. It was all on him. When I got out, he fell ill. And so, he lies and does not speak, does not move. He lies and that's it. I look after him. My son and I raise him, turn him on the side, so that there are no bedsores. That's how it is. He lies still.

Perhaps huge stress affected his speaking ability. Then he began to lose his memory. Then he began to forget everything altogether. And then he stopped walking and stopped speaking. Now he doesn't move at all. It's all because of big stress.

My husband took my illness hard. He was probably just afraid that, God forbid, I would not come through it. But I got through, and he is down now... And I cannot help him. I would do anything I can, but I cannot help him.

I think, all of us, my whole family, my husband and I are grateful to Rinat Akhmetov. He is a good man. He has been helping us all throughout the war. And I get help from him. There are not so many such kind people like him. One can help, and the other... We have many rich people, don’t we? But he is the only one to help. Nobody else helps these villages, but he does. Great man. We are very grateful to him.

I wish this war would be over. I wish that everything would become as before. So that we could travel. We cannot go anywhere now. I have sisters and brothers in Novoazovsk, but I can't go there because there are checkpoints and I have to get a pass. That is why I really want it all to come to an end. We hope and believe. I, for one, believe that everything will be fine in the end.