Zhanna Mykolaivna Arinitse, 76 years old. The woman was born in Latvia. Her parents were originally from Ukraine. In 1946, there was a famine, and the family was struggling. And thanks to her husband’s sister, who had a good position and a good salary, he invited his family and parents decided to move to Latvia until better times came.
Zhanna Mykolaivna was born there.
1968 – parents return to their native country, Ukraine. At first, they buy a small house in the village of Hola Prystan, and eventually, after getting back on their feet, they move to the city of Kherson.
The woman herself remains in Latvia. She gets married, gives birth to 2 girls and divorces her husband.
When the children were 7 and 14 years old, the parents took the girls to their home because the woman could not cope physically. She sent the children away and continued to work and live alone.
In 2002, she came to Ukraine and stayed to take care of her elderly parents.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the children immediately left Kherson in the first days.
Zhanna did not want to leave her parents’ house. She endured it to the last. She tried to live, worked in a bread kiosk from 5 am to 5 pm.
She told me how she would go to work, and everywhere was empty, no one was there, it was dark and there were constant explosions and shootings, and back home the same way.
Sleepless nights. Constant fear. I endured, I worked.
But on July 5, when she woke up in the morning, she realized that she couldn’t go on like this. She made up her mind and turned to the volunteers. She was pleasantly surprised by how quickly they responded to her request and on July 7, she was at the train station with her belongings.
She was put on a train to Khmelnytskyi, where she was also greeted with warmth, helped with her belongings, taken to the place of registration, paid 2000 UAH for travel, and put on a train to Lviv.
She received a very caring and attentive attitude from the volunteers.
She was also accompanied by guides and got registered with our shelter, where equally caring administrators met her.
Volunteers helped her buy a phone, as she had never had one, so that she could move on, stay in touch and finally find her daughters, because she has not known where they were since the evacuation from Kherson.
Now, thanks to the volunteers, she will travel to Latvia, look for her daughters, and wait for victory so that she can return to her native Kherson.