Tanya Garhin sits pensively on her bed. Her son Nikita is looking for her shoulder to lean on. Again and again, she looks at her cell phone. She can’t seem to find what she’s looking for. Her gaze wanders into the void. Mother and son are the only ones from her family who have so far arrived in Przemyśl, Poland. Tanya’s husband Roslan stayed behind in Mykolaiv together with their son Dimitri, 16. Dimitri did not want to leave his father alone. They are not the only ones.
Actually, they are one big family – the war tore them apart. They live on one side of the city. On the other side, Tanya Garhin’s 26-year-old daughter Ilyena still lives with her husband and their daughter Adelina, who just turned one month old. She did not want to leave her husband and has been holding out in the city since the first missile strikes. Now Tanya Garhin is waiting for her children to decide to leave the city for safety. If Ilyena leaves the city, Dimitri would also come, she thinks.
She spent the first days together with her husband, Dimitri and Nikita in a shelter near their house. After days of shelling, she feared for the safety of her sons. Nikita left together with his mother. Dimitri decided to stay. It was hard for her to say goodbye. Tanya Garhin and Nikita took 20 hours by train to Lviv. People were sleeping everywhere. They were lucky and got a seat. In the meantime, transports from Western Ukraine to the Polish border are a bit more organized. They caught a bus that took them directly to the border. From there, they continued to Przemyśl. Caritas volunteers approached them and offered them a place to sleep in an elementary school. They had hardly any luggage. Here they found the most necessary things, were provided with food and could gather energy for two days. In the meantime, volunteers found them longer-term accommodation near Kraków. Every day, Tanya Garhin sees the terrible images from Mariupol and other cities. She hopes that her city will be spared and that her children will decide to reach safety. She looks for the relieving message on her cell phone.
Philipp Spalek for Caritas