Alla Kucheruk, a music teacher, was preparing for an academic concert when she woke up to a war. She did not believe in the reality of what was happening until the last moment, so she did not leave her apartment in Irpin. But when the electricity, heating, and gas went out and she had to collect snow in buckets to melt it into water, it became clear that she had to get out of the occupied city. She took her two elderly neighbours with her. Now she recalls that time as one that united people.