Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. July 27-31. 2022

July 27. Day 153 of the war.
I did not draw Dad because he was in a different part of the room - talking to a guest. Mom reported that she fed all the animals - including a wild hedgehog who stopped by almost every day. He had a bit of an accident and got stuck in a jar but managed to get out. She is reminiscing about all the people who are gone from her life and says she missed them dearly. But glad that they don't see this ugly war. How long will it take to rebuild the country and the mind?

July 29. Day 155 of the war.
The previous day was very hard - horrible news and such a heavy heart. But they are concentrating on the fact that after the rain they were able to fix the internet and their neighbor stopped by, the cat brought another mole, and thee collected another half-a-cup of mulberry.

July 31. Day 157 of the war.
We had an unusual conversation with another family member joining in on the video call. Parents were explaining to us why is it that butter dough is tastier if you bake it after putting it in the fridge. I want to ask them some hard questions, and Dad immediately makes it into a joke asking me what kind of conversation I want to have - and then he goes into explaining to me the difference between three French verbs for different kinds of talking. Mom corrects his explanation in the middle. They end up singing a song and I stop asking my questions. We talk a bit about weather-related events in the world and Mom says - how nice it is that nature does not depend on people - it will survive without us very well. I leave them plotting how to buy and carry a watermelon (it is too heavy for either of them - but I think they have a plan :)

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. July 20-24. 2022

July 20. Day 146 of the war.
We talk about another series of horrific deaths in Kharkiv. I read a lecture about cloud storage and how to use it. They tell me about their childhood profession aspirations (Mom wanted to be a cleaner and Dad wanted to write encyclopedias). Mom reported that the snail (that she was photographing) ran away from her and asks why am I laughing so hard :) The best thing in their day? A double rainbow!

July 22. Day 148 of the war.
The runaway snail was discovered by Dad who walked 6 circles. Mom wrote three pages of memoirs - both are great accomplishments! Mom says that writing is easier than talking because nobody interrupts her (I read her memoirs every day and discover so many things I never knew!) Dad got a package with some of his instruments and it made his day. The fact that mail still works despite the war baffles me in the best possible way. I will try and see if I can send them something - to check how true it is!

July 24. Day 150 of the war.
It's been five months since the lives of so many people changed forever. Five months of asking endless questions: when will this end and how? Will someone be punished for all of this horror? How can we live when this is happening? How to help? How to make people see this for what it is: open aggression and endless, shameless lies.
My parents told me today about another attack on Kharkiv, our dear friend was very close, the apartment lost all the windows on one side. He is ok -for whatever stands fot it these days - he is not hurt physically. Mom said: he sounds less scared now than earlier in the war, and is already working on fixing the windows situation - but he curses way more!

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. July 12-15. 2022

July 12. Day 138 of the war.
My parents looked very much alive and happy - telling me about pancakes and all the mischief that the Cat managed to do since we spoke last (it gets a lot done in 24 hrs!). But then some loud aircraft started flying above them - so loud that I was able to hear it on my end of the world. And suddenly they were back to the horror of their life in pieces, their home far, their family dispersed, their city bombed daily, their country fighting for its life. 

July 13. Day 139 of the war.
It is the day of my parent's wedding anniversary. They had a guest - their neighbor stopped by. There was wine with the dinner, and the cat brought a grasshopper, as a present. Mom consults me on some mending projects. The weather was ghastly but beautiful: one storm was chased away by another, and there were several waves of hail. It was so cold that Dad did not go beyond the doorstep during the whole day. Mom said: if only we did not have the war.

July 15. Day 141 of the war.
Dad reports on Mom's progress with learning all about the new (for her) phone. We talk about the horror of the Vinnytsia attack. Mom says that waking up is very hard because the dark memories come in waves. And the only way she sees to live now is to think about one day - today.  

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. July 6-8. 2022

July 6, 2022, Day 132.
There was a storm and power was going out many many times during our call. So there was not much of a flow of conversation - more a flow of curses. Curses about the weather, russian invaders, loud sounds that are scary, and an overall unpredictable future. 

July 8, 2022, Day 134.
The Internet connection was spotty, electronic equipment was misbehaving and we were trying to troubleshoot it from half the world away. My parents prepared some new Ukrainian words for me to learn. Mom noticed that the Cat lost a tooth - but Dad thinks it is not a new development. Dad had a dream about talking to Rembrandt - they were together in the Night Watch and there was a chicken in that conversation. Unfortunately, many details are lost :) They switch to an argument about a proper emphasis on the name of Rembrandt. But agree that he was a genius painter and quite mad - "which is also normal" :) Mom says that Kharkiv is being shelled mercilessly and this unpredictable life is not life at all. 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. June 29-July 4. 2022

June 29, 2022, Day 125.
On that day I had just returned from a trip and could not find my sketchbook. Hence, I grabbed "whatever" paper (there is a shopping list on the back of this page :) Quick update about friends and what activities now are taking up most of their time: Dad can open the water and Mom can water the plants. Dad prepared a new proverb for me but they disagreed on the exact wording. The simple translation is "you arrived the way you were going". 

July 3, 2022, Day 129.
We discuss all the news. From Kharkiv, which is still shelled daily by the russian terrorist state. News from all the friends and relatives spread around Ukraine and Europe. News from their cat: it slept through one mouse walking by but later brought another mouse. News from the garden: there were two types of currants and mulberry in their breakfast. Today was a good day: their neighbor brought them food and picked up a post with meds for them.

July 4, 2022, Day 130.
This conversation was mostly about all the adventures of the Cat and a lizard: in short - it filled the day with unexpected excitement! They remembered some poems by Sasha Chorny - a russian-speaking poet from Ukraine. We talk about his complicated life: his parents converted him to Christianity to get a chance to educate him (he was Jewish and it meant that certain types of professions and educational opportunities were closed for him in russian empire). Dad talks about how he wrote under a pseudonym (very russian sounding) and ran away from the Soviets to Europe where he created some beautiful poetry for kids.