A day of memories…

A day of tears and snot winding around a fist.

God, what a ruin I rented! A complete derelict. How could I have done this?

What incoherent speech, how excited I was during this address! Several times I stopped and stupidly sobbed. Then I naively thought that now they would help me, I would change the city, and the whole world!

After all, I had Malysh! It seemed to me that I could do anything, I just needed a small step.

We lived like homeless people in an abandoned house. Our ceiling collapsed and buried 300 kg of food that I bought and brought in the day before under the rubble. My Malysh was very ill. I was rushing between clinics, trying to get at least some hope for his recovery. I worked two jobs and between jobs I went to the shelter to clean up. If there was half an hour left before the second job, I slept in the car, setting the alarm.

No one from the city authorities helped me then. I wrote a bunch of letters, held a bunch of meetings with deputies. And then I realized that I didn’t even feel like wasting my time on this.

Three and a half years later, my friend, my Malysh, died. At first, I thought that was it, I had broken down. But the day before his death, Malysh spoke to me with his eyes. I let all the workers go and was left alone with him. We talked about everything. About life, about plans for the future, he listened to me for a long time and it even seemed to me that he felt better and that he would get up.

It’s very good that we chatted then. It was this dialogue that determined the future fate of the shelter. I didn’t know then that there would be a war, but at that moment we were making plans. And then I looked for signs, messages from Malysh. I don’t know if I interpreted them correctly, but until now it seemed to me that we were coordinating everything together.

…The old “Friends’ Meeting Place” is no more, the war forced us to flee. But instead, “Friends’ Meeting Place-2” appeared, on our own land. It is very important that it is on our own land. A lot of knowledge appeared, everything was implemented in the new project. Malysh moved with us. There is war here too, but it is felt less and quieter here. Half a city’s search for a place gave results.

“Meeting Place for Friends-2” is almost a year old. I stopped giving interviews, stopped counting on city authorities, stopped banging my forehead on closed doors. But there is a person next to me who supports me very much.

Yes, charity is a whisper. It is not for show. It is not for show, it is quiet and from the heart.

Many plans, many projects and in the soul there is still hope to make this world a kinder place!

I want to thank you all for helping me in such a difficult period to feed the most difficult locations of the Odessa region! I am immensely grateful to you all! Having my own shelter, I cannot stop caring for those whose eyes, full of gratitude, I see every day.

Strength to us all! Faith!

Thank you for being there!