Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. May 29 - June 3, 2023.

May 29 - June 5, 2023. Days 461-468 of war.
We spoke about all the flowers of June: from peonies to roses, and discussed the names in different languages - not all the names were easy to pull out of our heads but still - five languages are a fun combination!

There was a trash-collecting machine that fascinated my Mom and they spent part of one morning watching it work. Mom is amazing that way - I once left her and a kid next to a fire station to go get some food and when I came back in an hour both of them still were not ready to leave.

Mom and Dad found a new bread and new cheese and are making a list of things for me to try when I come to visit them :) New dog friends were made (Dad is a magnet for dogs no matter which part of the world he is in - I think if tomorrow he would go to Mars, all the Martian dogs would be running to him to get a proper scratch). More walking adventures happened this week, almost all sane. And even a swim and a half happened too. 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. May 21-28, 2023.

May 21-28, 2023. Days 453-460 of war.
Mom continues to work on her memoirs and is writing about her first visit to the USA. The ending of that trip went not as planned as Mom was supposed to fly out on September 12, 2001. Which obviously did not happen and instead she flew a week later. She still has (back home - in Kharkiv) newspapers from those days - she wrote about all of that as well as lots of little details which she picked up as her travel was through New York. 

Cats are being very loud lately and there was a "sneaking and entering" when one of the blue-grays jumped between Mom's feet into the room, got up to the sink, spent a little time sitting there drinking, and ran away. Mom put some water out for the cats. 

Dad found a pretty bead during one of their walks and gave it to Mom as a present. He spent a night fighting mosquitos (they always prefer him to Mom) but looks something was found to help with the mosquito attacks so hopefully night sleep interruptions will go back to the previous number of reasons :)

 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. May 14-20, 2023.

May 14-20, 2023. Days 445-452 of war.
This week my parents found some new routes around their new temporary home. Which lead to meeting new cats, dogs and discovering new plants. We talk about friends and family in Ukraine and outside, talk about how people are fearing, how they are making decisions, and finding ways to help each other. 

One of the conversations happened during the evening meal - so I got an unusual angle to draw. We talked about latkes and how the same dish is cooked in Ukraine and other countries and how they all have little different names. I brought up some of my new Ukrainian words and told them about vyshyvanka day - I got a new vyshyvanka and wore it to a meeting with friends :) 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. May 8-13, 2023.

May 8-13, 2023. Days 439-444 of war.

My parents did not talk about the WWII victory day this year - did not even mention it. It used to be a huge topic, but not anymore. All the conversations were around the latest bombings in Ukraine and the complicated situation in different regions, around their dear Kharkiv in particular. And around people - people who hold Ukraine together with their good deeds - every tiny thing helps.

I learned that cats still have no names but are differentiated by their color. It is important to mention that my parents disagree on the names of some colors so I cannot be sure if it was a blue cat or a gray-blue cat that boldly tried to get inside their apartment and hide under a blanket on the bed. But one of them did!

The subject of what people take with them when they run from the war is something I think about a lot. There was a short video by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency that I saw several years ago. It is called "What They Took With Them" - where actors from around the globe read from the list of answers from refugees. When I saw this video first I remember that I was surprised by how many times I heard "home keys". Nothing on that list surprises me now. 

My Mom took her diary from the last two years with her. And she is illuminating me sometimes with little quotes and comparisons. This week she noted that they are definitely walking more now. But the density of life cannot be compared. She did not say anything else. 

Drawn reports in the form of the portraits - war in Ukraine. May 2-7, 2023.

May 2-7, 2023. Days 433-438 of war.
Getting used to a new apartment is not an overnight event but things are slowly moving along. My parents got lost only a couple of times this week, and both times found their way home quite quickly. A whole bunch of new cats were befriended but none made it to the point Mom would give it a name. Thought I know that one of the cats does not have a tail. A bakery was discovered nearby and now a long process of getting to know their assortment of baked goods is happening. We talked about Mom's progress with memoirs and my idea of drawing a map of friends - sort of like a family tree but friends (family too :) 

Mom said: Life is full of joy - if you are looking at it from the right angle. Sometimes it is hard to find that angle though.