My mom got out…

On the 15th day, under the shootings and bombardings in Hostomel. And what do you think she was doing there — except for sitting for two days in the basement (when… well… it became impossible not to — after someone barged into her home for the first time — afterward it became the most intense).

She counted the tanks and remembered which way they were going (and what exactly these tanks were like); she looked for the details. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any mobile service, didn’t have a microchip in her brain to leak all that info to ours [our defenders].

She analyzed the direction of the shock wave — it doesn’t ruin the closest buildings but goes upward and ruins the buildings a bit further. Yes, her professional background as a constructor of aviation landing gear helped out even nowadays — at her age of 73, in these extreme circumstances.

She looked at her broken windows and concluded that you needed to tape not just the glass but start the tape on the window frames themselves.

Also, she studied the behavior of people around: who touches other people and their stuff, who doesn’t; who is insolent and ruins everything; who senses people even without seeing them; who doesn’t even know where to hide from all of the issues happening.

She put on her blue coat so that everyone could see she was a «baba» [a serious lady] and headed to her negotiations.

She would ask not to break her neighbors'' windows and doors — that they could just open them, it was just that an older lady living there didn’t hear very well. Or there were little kids in the house. Or something else.

— … (asks something)…
— … (silence)…
— Do you speak Russian? [in Russian]
— (laugh) Yeah.
Or she’d speak with a young boy, who came to some unit for «military training,» and ended up in Ukraine.
— Your president is a demented freak.
— Well, yeah.

She says that when they hear you speak Russian to them, it’s as if they soften up a bit and are more open to communication. So she recommends it to everyone who wants to survive in a difficult situation.

She took apart her phone, hid her SIM-card so that no one could check her geo-location, and, when they wanted to get her phone, she said she didn’t have it anymore. They took the phones away from some of her neighbors. This trick wouldn’t always work, she said, but still…

On her way to Kyiv, when she saw Hostomel with her own eyes — what had happened to it — she cried for the first time in 15 days. And when, upon her arrival, she found out about her son, who is currently on the frontlines — well, it was a horror, I wouldn’t wish for anyone to experience it nor to witness it.

But my mom is such a Fighter. My brother is a peacemaker, even with a rifle. He forms and generates love and support all around himself.

Let all this end soon and let us all meet… Alive, happy, and fully free.

Anna, Kyiv-Hostomel