Tanya, Severodonetsk

The phone confirmed to me that they were shooting from all sides. The guy goes to work, but tells me to pack my bags urgently. Collected. I go swimming, at this time the young man comes back, says that’s it, we need to leave urgently. The explosion, the windows started shaking, I don’t understand anything. A guy runs to me, shouts: “Get ready to run!” I’m crying, I’m hysterical, my hands are shaking, I slip in the tub. I’m all wet, trying to get dressed, take my cat with me. Fear for parents, family, animals, the world. You don’t understand how to accept this reality, how to live with pain, how to stop pulling out your eyebrows. How strangely the world works, today you are, and tomorrow you are not. How wonderful it is to look at the sun after cold and dark basements. How inside you digest all the pain for your country and begin to pray for life, and not for your own, but for your family, children, relatives. How you learn to smile anew and try to go outside just to breathe air. How little it takes to understand how happy you’ve always been.