A life before dinner

-¡Sasha, a comer!

The sweet voice of the lady woke Sasha up from her nap. Suddenly, a strong garlic smell hit her, and although she was pretty thankful to be here, at that moment, for the first time in her life, she found herself missing borscht, the beet soup her mom used to make. 

Oleksandra Shevchenko was born in Cherkasy, USSR. Her great-grandfather had survived both the Holodomor and the Great Purge, those cruel Stalin ways of starving people and killed the surviving disidents. 

Her grandfather bravely fought against the Germans, defending Cherkasy without success. He finally died without meeting her father, Dmytro. 

By the time Sasha was born, Cherkasy was a productive Soviet city, and her family was not the only one being thankful for the peace time. 

-I don't want borscht, mama... Just pampushky, please!! -Sasha said, though she pretty much knew what the answer was going to be.

-Borscht will make you tall and strong, Sasha. You can't live out of just bread!

-But mama...

-Eat your borscht and then you can have a pampushky, Sasha. End of story.

Olena worked in Himvolokno, the artificial fiber factory. She was born the night before the Germans were expelled from the city. She met Dmytro at the factory's bus stop, where they would have to wait more than usual due to their slightly different shifts.

When the USSR fell, Sasha was worried about her whole life. She was married to a man called Antin and had a beautiful 3-year-old girl named Galyna. Antin was very enthusiastic about Ukrainian independence, but for Sasha, any political change in the country could disturb that peace her grandparents had fought and died for and her parents were so grateful about. 

She wasn't totally wrong, and after the independence Himvolokno closed and she had to find a different way of living. She decided to become a teacher, since she enjoyed so much reading and writing stories for Galyna.

Things with Antin didn't work out, but she really felt heartbroken when Galyna told her she was going to move to Poland. She had met "the man of her dreams" and was going after him to pursue her happiness. 

-¡Sasha, se enfría! ¿Estás bien?

"Live's funny", she thought, while silently thanking Jakub, her son in law, just before getting out of bed and heading to the dining hall.

-Voy - she said, and then another silent prayer for Olena, and her not so bad borscht.

The day she changed her mind about Jakub was the day she realized, while reading the news on her iPad, that leaving Ukraine was the safest plan. 

Being a 59 year old divorced teacher on her own, living 200 km from Kyiv, qualified her to be part of the refugees being sent out of the country after Russian's attacks. 

Thanks to this generous Valencian family, she's staying in a house in Spain with nothing but a spare of clothes, an iPad and her cellphone, but with food and shelter. She's aware of the inconvinience her presence presents, and she's anxiously waiting to be relocated in a shared house, were at least she can feel that she's not the only intruder.  

That night, before dinner, Sasha looked at her host family and smiled. She silently blessed them while having her hervido, wishing she could have a pampushky to match the garlic taste. 

Author's Notes

This is a fictional story based on true events. 

My heart and prayers go out to those whose lives have been drastically changed out of the blue. 
Not all refugees are families with little children. Not all refugees are used to war. Some people just have their normal lives turned upside down in a heartbeat. 

If you want to help Ukrainians refugees in Valencia, please contact Generalitat Valenciana.

For donations to children in Ukraine, visit Unicef.

To send your donations to Ukranians in situ, please visit this webpage. 

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