My passport is all I could get, says 80-year-old Polina from Mariupol 

Ms. Polina, 80, still remembers the scents and sounds that filled her home in Mariupol. The clock ticking, the creaking of the floor in the room, and the hissing of the kettle in the kitchen as she brewed her morning tea. She remembers the aroma of freshly baked pastries she would sometimes make for the friends she invited to visit.  
But Ms. Polina hasn't baked anything in a long time. For the last ten months, she has been living in a shelter at the Roman Catholic parish of St. John Paul II in Lviv’s suburb of Sokilnyky. 

On February 24, 2022, Ms. Polina visited her friend in Mangush, 20 kilometers from Mariupol. As the shelling began on the first day of the war, returning to her native city was out of the question. At that time, the Russian army began to level her hometown. A wave blast knocked her off her feet and she hit the wall. Polina knew she had to leave everything and save her life.  
She is still thankful to the volunteers who took her and other refugees from the war to Zaporizhzhia. From there, Ms. Polina took a train to Lviv. "Of course, I couldn't get home and take at least something,” Ms. Polina said. “The passport, which miraculously ended up with me, is all I could take out of Mariupol.”

 
At first, she was staying at her sister’s place in Lviv, and when her friend’s family grew, she moved to a shelter.  
"I am very content. There is a place to sleep; they feed us. We have everything we need. Doctors visit us often. All we are expected to do is take our pills on time," Ms. Polina laughs with a laugh.  

Ms. Polina worked the Ilyich Metallurgical plant for 42 years. In the first months of the war, the plant was shelled and destroyed, as was the entire city. Mrs. Polina has no family, and all her friends and acquaintances from Mariupol have left the city. There is no one to call and ask whether her block of apartments is still standing.  

"Have you been to Mariupol?" she asks. "No? You have no idea what a beautiful city it was. Well-kept, clean, elegant houses, modern playgrounds in every yard. The city has changed so much in recent years! I still can't believe that this was done to my Mariupol." She still hopes to return to her city, the life she used to have, the life taken away from her by the war. She hopes to use her key to open the door of her apartment, which she wants to believe, is still there waiting for its owner.