A prayer for the future

21-year-old Albina was planning to get married in the spring. The dress was waiting in the closet, so were the shoes, and the venue was reserved. She loved her home and hometown. She had her whole life ahead of her.

For three months, there had been rumors about the possibility of a war, but no one really believed it. When the war finally broke out, Albina’s mother Tanja was going to work just like Albina’s father. Since Albina was starting to get quite hysterical and scared, her mother decided to stay with her. Her father still went to work, even though there were already explosions all around.

The situation quickly worsened. Albina still believed that the whole nightmare would pass. The first night they spent in their own apartment, but on the second day they realized that the war is real. They moved to the cellar. Albina feared for her life.

In the first couple of days, Albina and her family still went to the grocery store. The queues were really long everywhere. People were filling up their cars, queuing at ATMs and stocking up on perishable food in their cupboards.

During the first days of the war, Albina’s family was hiding in the basement of their house, seeking some kind of safety, until they had to go to a civilian shelter because houses were being destroyed all around.

Albina had to witness death around her. And she was afraid of dying herself.

Life in the civilian shelter was very difficult. There were a lot of restrictive rules and small children had to be protected from hearing anything war related. The children were playing and running around, but the floor was so covered with sand that it whirled in the air. People had to spray water on the floor to keep the sand moist, but it still got very hard to breathe.

Albina and her mother were forced on leaving their home and fleeing from their hometown. The journey from Kharkiv to Lviv was very tough, as was the continuation to Warsaw. There were no seats left on the train and people fell over each other.

Finally, they arrived in Finland after a number of painful weeks of horror. Albina had previously worked seasonally in Finland, and that is why she arrived in Hailuoto with her mother. Later, after working for a while, she moved to Oulu. Albina’s father arrived in Finland in June. Tanja and her husband went back to Ukraine in October to take their grandmother to safety in Finland.

Life started all over again. Life that was completely destroyed. Just like a child learns things at the beginning of their life, so does Albina now. One day at a time, without any dreams.

“Sometimes during the day there were moments when they didn’t bomb so much, but it started again at night. You never knew if they would hit you or next to you.”

“I got strength from this prayer. It was the only consolation in that apocalypse.”

“There were injured people everywhere. And dead people. The ambulances did not have time to pick them up in time.”

“That’s when I thought this is the end. I’m 21 years old and I am probably not going to survive.”

“Shortly before the war, I started making this photo album. My father brought it to me when he came here. It’s really important to me now.”

“On the day we left to the shelter, our house was also bombed.”

“Some men went out for a cigarette but did not return to the shelter. They had been shot.”

“Deep down, we want to go back, but we don’t know if there is anything to return to.”