At the Mariianivskyi Lyceum, Nataliia is in charge of maintenance. In the first days of the full-scale invasion, together with other women, she gathered in the cultural center, bringing old fishing nets, scissors, and pieces of fabric. For whole days they cut and wove camouflage nets. Their hands were rubbed raw and bleeding. But the hardest part was not the physical exhaustion, but the worry for her daughter’s family in Sumy. 

Mrs. Nataliia’s son-in-law went to the front from the first days. A year later, he was released home — for rehabilitation after wounds. But that same evening, when he arrived in Sumy, a russian missile hit their apartment directly. The son-in-law survived by a miracle. He lost an eye, and a fragment got stuck in his heart. Doctors do not risk operating — he still lives with it.

Mrs. Nataliia’s family endured losses: a nephew was killed, other relatives are fighting. Pain is everywhere: neighbor boys, whom Nataliia remembers since kindergarten — the war took them too. Every night she repeats the same prayer: for peace, for victory, for children not to die.