My city at first stood quietly peacefully during the first days of the war. We were all sitting at home, of course we stocked up on food and packed a backpack in case of evacuation, but we were sure that we would not have to leave.
After a couple of days, the first shelling begins, but they were not in the city itself, but outside the city. Every night I became more and more afraid to sleep. And then one evening a bomb hit the military unit, which was located in the neighboring area with my house.
It was a terrible dull sharp sound of an explosion and everything began to tremble. The siren didn’t even work before that, I calmly lay on the bed with my son. With a fright, I instantly somehow moved from the mattress under the mattress and covered us with the child with it. But then everything was quiet. Luckily our house was not damaged. But that was already enough for me.
I didn't want to sit and wait any longer while I shelled my house. The worst thing was for my baby, he was only two years old.
the next morning I took a few things, a bun that I found at home, a bottle of water, a stroller and rushed to the station. Just in the news they said that there would be trains for evacuation. We were not told how, when or where.
I called the station and they simply told me: “Come now, the train is still standing. When he leaves and where I can’t say, ”and it’s understandable why.
At first, I waited an hour for at least some kind of minibus to get to the station. In the cold with things and a child. Nearby were also people with backpacks and things.
Finally, the minibus arrived and we were able to get there. There was indeed a train at the station and many mothers with children of very different ages. There were practically no men. We were told that we would go now to Berdichev and there we would transfer to another train.
Fortunately, I managed to take a seat for us, and there were just bench seats. As soon as we sat down, the air raid began. According to the rules, during an air raid, you need to hide in a shelter, so people with horror in their eyes began to get out of the cars and run for shelter at the station. After a while, everything calmed down and people again returned and sat down in their places. But as soon as we sat down, the siren started again. And people again naiads come out because we were at the station - the place where they quite like to throw rockets to cut off the path.
It ended up taking two hours.
For two hours we stood and could not leave, and people ran back and forth.
When we finally went, people saw the news that a train station was bombed near our city, in its area. We were all very frightened, especially when the lights on the train suddenly went out and we stopped and sat listening to the sirens.
But that was only the beginning of our journey. Then we came to a small town to transfer to another train.
The conductors themselves did not know anything and waited for what they would be ordered and where they would be told to go. And we didn't know either.
At the station, in ignorance and cold, we all spent another hour.
Even then I realized that it was for a long time and saved a bun and water. I regretted not taking food. My son and I had a bite of a piece of bread and then boarded the next train, but at least it was already known that we were going to another city where there would be another transfer.
It was already in the evening, or rather at night, the children in the car were tired and many were crying. And it was again very cold and again benches, on which tired People tried to position themselves and the children so that they would somehow sleep.
I had a travel stroller so I put my child to bed quite comfortably by laying out the stroller right in the aisle of the train and wrapping him in a blanket.
Fortunately, I took another blanket with me, and he saved me, otherwise I can’t even imagine how much I would freeze there.
Then in the middle of the night there was a quick transfer to the third train, at which we were told very quickly and we literally ran out of the train and ran into another, it was terrible because the crowd and Panic, everyone was running, someone shouted let the small children go ahead so we were lucky and we were rescued from this crowd and quickly picked up by the train.
And there were still four hours of travel ahead, and it was already night and it became even colder. There were even fewer seats, people were sitting on the floor on their suitcases.
I found a place in the corner where I could even unfold the stroller again and my child could sleep further, and I myself sat huddled next to me on the floor and wrapped myself in a blanket. From the fact that the whole day she practically did not eat, the body was even colder. I sat and rejoiced that this was almost the end of the road.
Then we arrived at the Lvovsky railway station and I realized that before that I had not yet seen a really large crowd and crush.
But I already understood that here you need to fight in every possible way for your life.
Children were raised above their heads because they were simply crushed below.
I quickly saw the police and asked them to help me get through, and when they saw me, they themselves understood that I would not have left that station myself. And they gave me an escort of two men who shoved the road for us, and behind me other mothers with children immediately quickly settled down and followed me along this corridor.
I was taken outside and then what? I had a dead phone, a completely frozen child, and I did not know the address of my girlfriend.
Apparently I looked very confused because a volunteer approached me and asked what kind of help I needed. And he sent me to a tent where it was more or less warm and it was possible to charge the phone.
There were also mothers with children in that palette, but they had to sit there all night, and they sat in the morning, they were waiting for a little queue to go abroad.
It all struck me to the core.
If not for all these people who helped people like me at the station, I don’t know how I would have coped. And how would we manage. We would freeze outside.
Then other volunteers organized transportation for us, and at three in the morning we finally found ourselves warm. And I drank tea and ate sandwiches.
And now I’m still not ready to go somewhere again ... when I told this on the phone to my friend, she said that I was a heroine mother, and that she had no idea how I went through it myself with a child.
I was also lucky, because people try to get out of some Cities for several days and go under shelling, people and children die there, they don’t even reach the train ..
Photo: https://t.me/pzhytomyr