"We did not receive a pension for nine months, we survived thanks to the help of the Humanitarian Center”

I was born on April 30, 1940 in Donetsk. I was the only child in my parents' family. In 1941, the Great Patriotic war began. My father went to the war, and I was raised by my grandmother and mother. Dad was captured and spent a year and a half in a concentration camp. After his release, he came home disabled, lost a third of his stomach from constant torture, beatings and starvation. After graduating from school, I went to work at a Coke plant in Donetsk. There I met my future husband Myroslav, who came from Belarus.

We had a wedding. We lived with our parents, built, settled down slowly. I gave birth to two sons. My parents are dead already. My husband and I raised our children. They have their own families, children, and grandchildren. One son lives in Russia, and the other  is in Donetsk. My husband and I retired. We were raiding our  grandchildren.

When the war in the Donbas started in 2014, my husband and I came to Atarohnativka, to my father's house, and lived here in the village. We had  goats, chickens, and a small household.

For nine months, we did not receive a pension, and we lived on humanitarian aid from the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation. My husband Myroslav suddenly fell ill and died, and I was left alone. Thanks to people, they helped me a lot here  - to  bury my husband, to arrange resettlement, because we had a Donetsk residence permit.

I live alone now. I am 78 years old. My children can't help and can't come because of the military situation.