Has the war changed my life?

22 Квітня 2022 by Olga Zhurbenko

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Soon it will be two months since aggressive Russian attacked Ukraine. And I am living through all this period as one single long day. Every morning I get up fearing and thinking whether my native people, relatives, friends and other people, Ukrainians are still alive. Pray is my first daily task, after which I read news and dream to find something positive. Unfortunately, nothing positive yet.

My husband and I have to use wheel-chairs. I lost my parents long ago. And my husband’s parents, who live in Belarus, have become native people to me. Due to the pandemic restrictions, we haven’t been able to see them for three years. And because of the war, we don’t know whether and when we’ll be able to meet in the future. My heart sinks when our mother (my mother-in-law) phones her son (my husband) and tries to cheer him up. Or the way round. He phones her. I can only imagine what is happening in their souls.

We were planning to visit them this spring, and they had planned their vacations for summer to enjoy staying in Ukraine with their children. But the war has changed everything…

I am working a lot. Sometimes it seems to me that God is giving me so much work so that I wouldn’t fall into depression. Because often you want to cry out of pain.

Every day many people who need all kinds of help phone me. And the most dreadful thing for me is when I do not know how to help them. But I am very glad when we manage to resolve a problem. And there are more such positive cases.

What else has changed in our life?

My husband has lost his job. He’s lost a possibility to receive his Belarusian pension in Ukraine. I can see how painful it is for him.

We are very worried by uncertainty. We don’t know what will be next. We do not have time for health check-ups. And neither wish for that. We have been under continual stress. Our soul and heart are aching for our native country, for our people, for cities and villages.

We are no longer dreaming about a vacation, recreation, a nice car, or clothes.

We have the only and one dream – PEACE!

Valentyna, Ukraine