Today, I can’t shake off the feeling of heaviness inside. Together with the team of “Veterans’ Wives,” we delivered humanitarian aid around Kharkiv, handing out food packages and warm outerwear to elderly people. It seems like routine work by now, but each time it touches you in a new way. And, honestly, it’s not always possible to keep a distance between what you do and what you feel.
It is very painful to see lonely elderly people who are left alone with their old age, cold apartments, and minimal pensions. They often speak little. Sometimes they just silently take a jacket or coat, say thank you, and seem embarrassed that they need help. In these moments, you realize that the problem is not only about clothes or food. The problem is loneliness, the feeling that someone might forget about you.
Emotionally, it is very exhausting. You return home and for a long time replay these faces, these apartments, these brief conversations in your mind. You think about how it happened that basic things like warmth, food, and support have become a luxury for people. Sometimes even anger arises, but it quickly turns into quiet fatigue and the desire to simply be there, as much as you can.
We want to sincerely thank Igor Korsunsky, Julia Preshman Korsunsky, Oksana Bondar, and the Rememberus.org foundation. It is thanks to your support that we can help those who need it the most right now. In these difficult times, such help is not just about humanitarian packages or warm clothes. It is about dignity, about the feeling that you are not alone and that someone remembers you.
Right now, this is incredibly important. Perhaps even more important than it seems at first glance. Because sometimes a warm jacket is not just about physical warmth. It is about warmth for the soul. And about hope, which holds you up when there is almost nothing left to rely on.
With support GO “Wives of Veterans”