Quoted By:
Before the war, 73-year-old Halyna Sidorova left Zaporizhzhia city, where her children and grandson are located, to care for her elderly mother in a village outside of Polohy, another city in Zaporizhia province about two hours away by car.
During the war, the two areas were divided by a front line that Sidorova could not cross, and she suddenly found herself in occupied territory, isolated from the relatives she had left behind.
Sidorova made a decision. Shortly before her 93-year-old mother’s death, she told her, “Mom, when you pass away, I’ll stay here for up to nine days, come to your grave to say goodbye, and then I’ll go home.”
When the time came, she silently packed her things, grabbed a walking stick, and embarked on the challenging journey: a full day’s bus ride through other occupied territories and into Russia, where she set out on foot along the corridor.
Sidorova told no one that she was leaving. Throughout the difficult journey, she found solace in a prayer.
“I read the prayer the whole way ... the entire journey, even when falling asleep, I continued reading,” she said while sitting in the shelter in Sumy.
When she finally arrives back home in Zaporizhia city, Sidorova’s journey will have taken her nearly full circle.
A CONFLICTED DECISION
Anna and her husband initially resisted leaving.
But as the days passed, more Russian troops began occupying empty houses and forests, a situation that she said became “terrifying to the core.”
In January, they intercepted her husband’s brother as he was returning home from work, asking him where they could get alcohol. He told them the truth: He didn’t know. When he got home, two armed Russians came to his house and started beating him with a rifle in his yard, Anna said.
