Iryna Shashenko works as a teacher at the Borodianka Academic Lyceum, teaching Ukrainian language and literature. Her family spent a month under occupation.   “The first time, when those shots pass right over your head. You can’t even tell if you're alive or dead. You don’t feel your heart. It’s not there,” — the educator recalls the events of March 2022. 

But later, Iryna and her relatives learned to recognize dangerous sounds and make use of the pauses. “Tanks drive by, for example. You orient yourself by the sound, figure out which direction they went. And if a convoy has gone out, that means my husband can go to his brother’s to get some potatoes,” — the teacher recounts how they survived.

Iryna saw a building hit while people were inside. Rockets flew right over her head: “A direct hit to a five-story building. Fifty meters away — and there’s our house.” She helped herself and her family cope with the fear by reading books and talking to each other. “The rule our family followed was — to remain human,” Ms. Iryna advises.