‘I cried for a year’

On 18 November 2014, everyone was inside the house. At that time, he [my son] was just resting. What did he do there? He came in the evening and went to bed. It happened 20 minutes to nine in the evening. At that time, a shell landed.

Right where he was lying. Their apartment is just the first one, and their sofa was on this side towards the road. He was lying down on the sofa. A bed was further there. Yuliya and the kids were on the bed and he was on the sofa. And their neighbour was behind the wall. Both of them were killed at once.

We heard that there was an explosion, a strong explosion. And then people came. But who knew where it was? Nobody knew anything. And then we were called. We came. They were no longer there. They were taken to the hospital. All of them, my daughter-in-law, my granddaughter and him.

He suffered the most. Yuliya underwent an operation. Little Mariyka was in coma for a month. Our neighbour across the street took little Artemchyk for some time. He was five months old then. And then we came, at around 11 o’clock. We called an ambulance again and Artem and I were taken to the hospital. And he was hospitalized.

The whole house was damaged. You’ll see it. Everything was destroyed from top to bottom. All the four families suffered. But further there, there lived an old woman who was about 90 years old and an old man of around the same age. While our son was 40 and the neighbour was above 50 years old.

He just turned 40 then. He worked in a mine for 20 years. Yes, in our mine. He would have retired by this time. He was a good man.

He worked for 20 years at one and the same section in the mine. Those people who worked in the mine, at that section, nobody could say anything bad about him. Because people said that he was very good at work.

I praise him too. Yes. He underwent four surgeries when a child and everything was fine. He grew up and I never spanked him. He was so calm. They say now children are not like that, God forbid. And I never spanked him, not a single time. He was such a calm child. And he grew up normally.

He called his father “papa-papa”. Then he started calling him “batik” because our nephew is so tall, 1.9 metres high. And our nephew’s father is smaller and he is 10 years older than him. And he called him “batik”. So, our son heard this and also started calling his father as “batik”.

Oh, I remember him every day.

I cried for one year, a year. Then I noticed I got a problem; my eyesight was getting worse. I went to visit ophthalmologist. She checked my eyesight. This eye does not see anything at all, and the other one can see 30%. She prescribed me to wear spectacles.

Our grandchildren are small. We can’t wait till they grow up. I am 75 years old and our granddaughter is only in the first form of school. She is only seven years old. Our grandson is two years and seven months old. So, two of us have left. This is how it is. I cannot come in here, into the living room.

We had shellfire here in 2014. We slept dressed for one year. We could not undress – such a heavy shelling. From Marfa’s grave, the whole wood line behind our street. It was all dug up because they [the military] were positioned there. They were shelling through our village. Many houses were damaged.

We had a fatal injury [of our son], while for other people it was either a house was destroyed or a shed was damaged, or a cellar was hit. That is it. In our case, it was such a [lethal] accident.

I grew up without father. And now, my grandchildren will be growing without their father too. Mariyka knows her father, while Artemchyk does not know him at all. He was five months old, so he did not know, did not realize.

The main thing is not to have this shelling. On the 14th there was a strong shelling here, God forbid. It was very loud. In that direction too. They fired from both sides! Right on the holiday, the 14th of January.

Oh, I do not have the heart to do anything. Don’t want to do anything, absolutely. That’s it. I sometimes go out into the yard and remember that this is the road Vova walked. There is nobody to come now. He was our only child. That’s it. We do not have anyone else. He was our only child.

I sometimes think that maybe I will give it up. Maybe it will heal with time. No. I was told that I would remember for the rest of my days.