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Death has been chasing me all my life, but God takes care of His children: the story of a large family from Kyiv region

Death has been chasing me all my life, but God takes care of His children: the story of a large family from Kyiv region

Svitlana and her five children were caught up in the war in the village of Plakhtianka, not far from Makariv. From the very first day, the sounds of fighting came from Bucha and Hostomel, and later their village was caught in a ring of fire, from which it seemed impossible to escape. Almost two weeks without electricity, heat, communication and hot food... And the fighting raged on... Then the food supplies started to run out. It became obvious that we had to make a choice as soon as possible. 

On March 9, early in the morning, an evacuation column began to form in the village. There were six of them, and the cars were jam-packed. Svitlana asked to take at least one child per car, but there was no room... And suddenly - a car at the end of the column. There was one guy in, whose family refused to leave. It was no one but the Lord Himself who extended His helping hand to Svitlana's family at that moment.

"War strips off the masks. It is like silence after a nuclear explosion. No walls around, no trees, and only those who will lead you further are nearby," Svitlana recalls, looking back. "When trouble happened in my life, there were always those who helped. I remember July 25, 2017, the death of my husband... I just wrote "Ihor is gone... He died..." And my Caritas-Spes friends were already there, quietly, without asking if I needed help. I am infinitely grateful to them all! For organizing everything: the funeral and my rehabilitation afterwards.  The same on February 24, 2022... I still didn't know if the world existed around me, and my friends had already organized our evacuation. God sends good, sincere people on my way, of all ages and nationalities, who have supported us and still do."

Svitlana and her children are now in Austria, in the beautiful town of Waidhofen. A year ago, they knew nothing about this city and did not even dream of visiting it. But fate brought them here to meet people they will always remember with gratitude.

"In the city we are now, there are people who were there when the whole world fell. Pascal Weyer, Sabina Neibor, Anya Mazur, Gudrun, Jamila, Yura and Olya, Tarmina, and a few others," says Svitlana. "God's love has no borders, no friends or foes, no religion. It is unconditional love. When a person who sees you for the first time gives you oneself, no, it is impossible to understand."

She recalls how they lived for three months in a boarding house for refugees, but there was not enough space. Meanwhile, God was doing His work through Pascale, Sabina, and other people - taking care of His children. The owners of the boarding house gave them their home, a two-story house that Sabina and Hubert Mosamer, the owner, had already prepared for us.

"When I first entered the house, tears involuntarily rolled down my eyes from surprise and the care the owner of the house looked at us with," the woman recalls. "Do you like it? Why are you crying? Is everything okay?" he would ask, and Svitlana could not believe that this amazing cozy house on the banks of the Ibbs River in the heart of Waidhofen was now their new home.

And then there was their first meeting with a local refugee, Tarmina.

"After three months, I was already eager to go to work to help those who could not leave and were still under occupation, or who had already left and were scattered by the war throughout Ukraine. That was my main goal - to get out and help those who stayed behind," says Svitlana, "because we had been without bread, water, heat for two weeks, and I knew that my work at Caritas could help. I just needed to say that we were alive and tell them where the help was needed. And that's exactly what happened! As soon as the village was liberated, Leonid Zihert from Caritas-Spes Zhytomyr started bringing food and medicine there. In Austria, Sabina was holding me back, saying, 'Wait, everything will be fine, no one will hire you without documents'. So I got my documents, moved into the house with my children, and on the same day Tarmina offered me a job as a cleaner in a supermarket. There was a vacancy, the job was pretty far away, so I had to leave early. I agreed without hesitation. God takes care of His children. I work for twp hours a day, from 6-8 a.m., and then I am free. I can be with my children."

But the trials did not end there.

"On October 10, I fell and broke my shoulder. I fell on a crosswalk and couldn't see anyone or anything because of the pain. An ambulance arrived. I saw my friend's neighbor, Gudrun, there, whom I've recently met. He is a doctor and was on duty that day. I had not yet reached the hospital, and Gudrun and Sabina already knew what was wrong with me. When I came to and saw my daughter, my only question was, "Alyona, am I alive?" Death has been chasing me all my life, but God takes care of His children. After my husband died, I was afraid to fall asleep for more than three months because I was afraid that I would never get up again. Since then, I have been constantly afraid of dizziness and falling asleep. When we were surrounded in the basement, I was afraid of falling asleep. I was afraid that a Russian soldier would come and kill the children. I was constantly listening to the silence: who is coming? I could tell by the footsteps whether these were our people or not. For the first time during the war, I fell asleep at Paskal's house...

After the fracture, this fear returned. I fell and lost consciousness. When the doctor brought me back to consciousness for a couple of seconds, I heard him as if in a distant dream, and I had a feeling that I was leaving, flying away, that I had no strength to breathe and live. But not this time.

For two months I was at home in my bed. No communication and no movement. I had time to think about life, how important it is and how to appreciate it here and now. On December 27, I went to work. It was like a breath of fresh air..."

Svitlana is still in Waidhofen. She is waiting to return home.  "I want to plant a garden again, get chickens, a dog, a cat... I live in hope," she says, "I work, I help whenever I can to those in need, those who stayed back home in Ukraine... God takes care of His children."

Despite the great support of friends and strangers abroad, it was not easy to adapt to living there. "In my opinion, the biggest difficulty is the realization that you are not at home, both for me and for my children. If someone had asked me or my children where you would feel better, we would have answered with certainty that we would be better off at home, in our village, on our native land. What children and all of us really need is happiness that is not measured by money, freedom that cannot be replaced by material things. And this is the truth I realized it long ago, in my childhood. Our country is a country of free people! The most important thing we need is to appreciate what we have and be grateful to God for it!"

10 April 2023
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