CARMEL, Ind. — For Ukrainian-born Svitlana Ramer, who now lives in Carmel, it doesn’t get any more real than waking up Friday to video of her 90-year-old grandmother begging for peace.
“I hope people understand that this is very real for us,” said Ramer.
The message, Ramer said, was meant not just for her eyes, but for the world’s.
“I am 90 years old,” said Lesya Ramer, with translation by her granddaughter. “I lived through a war as a child already. I don’t want another war. I don’t want people to be killed. I am asking everyone, begging, please stop the war. Please do something.”
She and Ramer’s mother live in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv and have taken shelter outside the city in a friend’s home, because Lesya, who had a stroke in November, is physically too weak to travel far to escape the Russian invasion.
“I don’t think she would make it to begin with, and she also doesn’t have a travel passport,” explained Svitlana.
If she wanted, Ramer’s mother could escape and get to safety, but she refuses to leave her elderly mother.
“If I turned that situation onto myself, how would I leave my mother behind in a situation like that and flee?” she asked.
The answer is she couldn’t, so Svitlana understands why her mother stays, despite the danger.
“I really try and encourage her to be brave,” Svitlana said, explaining that the family matriarch already knows what it’s like to flee an invading army.
Ramer’s grandmother had escaped, along with her family, when Hitler invaded when she was 10 years old.
“They had to flee east as the forces were coming in, and they were very fortunate to even be able to do so,” said Svitlana.
But this time, it's not possible.
“Her childhood was already stolen from her. Why would her elderhood be stolen from her too?” Svitlana asked. "To go through something like this twice, in some of your most vulnerable times in your life, when you’re a child and an elder, I can’t wrap my mind around that.”
So she holds on to each precious communication she has with her family, knowing at some point it could all could stop if electricity or cell service goes out.
“It’s really a day-to-day situation,” said Svitlana.
Hoping though when it comes, the two women she loves the most are safe.
What other people are reading: