I got married in 1970. I met this man when he was young. And we started to settle down.
His mother lived here, we lived with her, and then we began to build. Mom lived nearby. My man and I built our house together, mostly he did. They helped us to set up the walls, then they somehow covered the roof together, and the rest were partitions, he put everything together by himself. I did a lot of things here with my own hands. Both children and son-in-law helped, so little by little.
When the war began, it was very difficult for us, very difficult. We could not receive a pension for several months. We survived as best we could. It was very hard. The supplies are all out. It was very hard without a pension.
Then vegetable gardens began [to give food], the zucchini were ripe. We baked pancakes from zucchini. Then the tomatoes were ripe, potatoes. And then they paid us a pension, then, thank God, it became a little easier.
The situation is very difficult and tense. Somewhere it explodes, bangs - you're on the nerves, the nerves are weak. We are afraid of everything.
It was August 31st at about 6 pm. My sister lived here, she came from Lugansk, ran away from the bombing with her grandson. He was three years old. And when it all started, she was in the house, cooking, and the grandson was playing here under a canopy. And when it started, she quickly dragged him into the house. They hid under the kitchen table, she covered him with herself. Well, thank God, nothing was damaged in the house. The windows fell out and the roof was badly smashed.
We visit our house, we come. We put things in order, drive away the spiders. I want it to be in order anyway. The daughter-in-law is very fond of flowers, she planted many flowers. It is so beautiful here in spring, everything blooms, and daffodils, and tulips, and roses. It is beautiful. In the garden, we clean the weeds, clean near the yard, take care of the roses in the front garden.
We have three hundred square meters of a vegetable garden, but we are coping with my man for now, thank God. We fight weeds. He trims the trees; we plant corn for the chickens. Thank God, we are still moving.
Now there are many empty houses here. I do not even count the abandoned ones, even those that fall. People gave up everything and left. This is what the war has done.
A lot of people left this place. It's very hard to look at all this. There was a gorgeous village here. And now you go and look - there is already an empty house, there is an empty house.
We wish to have health. We don't need anything else. Health and peace. We need peace. And peace will be and rest will be. Everything will get back into its place, the children will return home. It will already be fine. This is the most important thing.
