She spent half a year of her life in the school basement

Mrs. Marina from the city of Vugledar, in Donetsk region, spent half a year of her life in the school basement, where she hid from shelling together with her neighbors and her son, who has a disability. Since the beginning of the war, they have had no electricity, gas, or water.

Listening to the story of 73-year-old women, one involuntarily remembers stories from books and films about the Second World War on which modern generations grew up. Then we looked at that reality as if it was happening on the other side of the screen. Now war is our everyday life.

Maryna Saldykivna, without losing her sense of humor, recalls these six months and talks about her daily routine. Brave men got up around 4 a.m. and lit a fire to boil water for 60 people. And Ms. Maryna and her friends-neighbors would set the alarm clock so that they could get in line early and get boiling water for tea/coffee.

Then they cut vegetables together in the basement and prepared soup or porridge for everyone. This is how they survived, thanks to volunteers who brought food, water and bread every week. And thanks to the fact that people united and shared with each other what they could.

And there was a difficult situation all around: russian were constantly bombing. People were afraid to go out into the yard and during these six months they almost didn't see light and didn't breathe fresh air. This affected health - the skin became gray-green, problems with the thyroid gland began.

In addition, the humidity in the basement was 80% and the bread brought by the volunteers was moldy the next day. "And we subconsciously wanted to leave it, because we were never sure that the volunteers would reach us next time," recalls Ms. Maryna.

Of all the shelled houses in the district, only Maryna Saldykivna's house remained standing as a "swallow's nest". However, the windows still flew out.

After the evacuation, the woman ended up in our Dnipro hub, the "Victory" church, where she received shelter, food, necessary things and the warmest support of volunteers. Now Ms. Maryna will be able to go to her relatives with her grandchildren in a safe corner of Ukraine.

Maryna Saldykivna believes that the time will not be long when she and her whole family will return to their "swallow's nest" in peaceful Ukraine.

You can watch the video here ⬇️

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