My daughter Taisiia is 38 years old, but she has a mind of a five-year-old child due to inborn disorder. Her nervous system is not forming further. I cried my eyes out for five years, but then I accepted it. Taya loves to draw, do beads weaving, play with dolls, and sew dresses for them. Since my husband died six years ago I have lived with my daughter alone.
We live in Shcherbynivka - a place with constant shooting attacks. Once they attacked so heavily that Taisiia ran to a shelter, where she sat and held an icon of Holy Mother in her hands, believing that she would save her life.
Taya thought it was a thunderstorm, fell to the floor in the house, and then grabbed the icon and ran to the basement. That time, the daughter was left alone which rarely happens. That day I went to the market, and when I returned, my daughter could not recognise me. She was trembling and shaking.
Because of the shelling, the house was cracked The cracks let water inside after each rainfall.
Money for my daughter's treatment is never enough. I myself have serious eyes problems. We live on social benefits. I manage to buy some basic medications, patch up the holes in the house. I do not have any money left to buy food. Humanitarian aid is the only thing that helps us survive.
