‘It was so scary that my daughter and I said goodbye to each other’

It happened on 14 January 2015. I was at my work in the nursing centre for elderly. It was the very beginning. The windows in the nursing centre got shattered. At that moment, I was pouring water there and I started crying.

I could not run home. The nursing home was on the neighbouring street. I said: ‘Oh, my granddaughter is there, she was home alone.’ Children did not go to school at that time, they stayed home.

I ran home, but when I came, they were not in. The corner was damaged here. It was not clear what was going on. Our house was hit by shelling twice. The second time it was exactly six months later. The first time was on 14 January and the second was on 17 July.

I don’t wish anyone to experience what we have come through. We were at home when the second shelling happened. They always shell at night. I just heard something was flying in. I was blast concussed. I could not hear anything for about two weeks. Besides, I started to feel some headache, some head noises, while I am not that old yet.

We carried the documents with us. We shouted: ‘Nastia, to the cellar!’ And our cats followed us to the cellar too. This is our dear cellar, our dear escape. We had chairs here and warm boots. Sometimes we slept here, sometimes we just sat here until one o’clock, until two in the morning, when it all ceased.

Last time it was so scary that my daughter and I said goodbye to each other. I swear to you, it was so that we asked each other’s pardon. It’s good that at least the granddaughter was at the [children’s] camp. It hit so hard! We did not understand what it was.

We put some rags and felt inside the holes in the house’s walls. In the past, I could at least attend my work, but then the nursing home was evacuated. I'm on retirement. My daughter is alone. It is difficult.