“When I try to speak about myself, I never know what to say. I will speak about a city that has become my second home, the Ukrainian city Odessa. There I first met my future husband, that’s where our two sons grew up. Now I wake up daily with my cell phone app beeping, warning about air-raids in Odessa. I don´t turn it off, even now when I'm back in Slovakia.
Back in Odessa, my husband and my older son are still there. Every time after the warning is over, I call them to check if they are still alive. And then in the media I watch the news about my city – the places I came to love are destroyed: the school where my boys studied, the shopping center where I used to get my groceries. The town square, the church. The flower shop.
Every time I see the destruction, as if I lost a part of my life. It hurts a lot.”
~ Mariana