What about the children?

—- Story of four children —-

A friend hosting us in Beregovo told us how she escorted a woman with four children from Mariupol to the border.  She escaped on an evacuation bus.  She is a teacher.  Only one out of the four children is her own. 

The second is her nephew, her sister’s child.  One day the sister went out from the bomb shelter for food and water but never came back.   

The third child is the neighbor’s.  Both parents perished; he was spotted in the ruins of the neighbors’ house and taken to the basement. 

The fourth child she saw when running with the other three to the evacuation bus.  He sat next to his dead parents.  She grabbed him and his bookbag because she assumed he would have his papers there.  She was right. 

They escaped by pure chance.  The bus behind them was destroyed. 

At the border she told the officials:  “Three out of four kids do not have the permission, do with them what you will.”  They were all let out and went on to Hungary as refugees. 

By Ksenia Hizhnyak. March 23, 2022. Translated by Vadim Astrakhan