Letter from Ukraine: How will my mom survive if I’m drafted? – POLITICO Europe

I tweeted my way into U.S. Embassy events, including two Independence Day receptions hosted by then-U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt.

But by the time Russias full-scale invasion began, I had fallen out of love with the platform. I had other priorities caring for my elderly disabled parents who chose not to evacuate.

Theres a video of me escorting them into the bomb shelter in the early days of the Russian onslaught, one I later shared in a short interview with France 24. My dad, then 80, could only manage baby steps and soon became bedridden. He passed away a harrowing 18 months later, on Aug. 30, 2023.

The meds, the diapers, the bedsores, the sleepless nights and his dying breaths they all left me with a crater in my soul. And he left me with one last parent: my mom, aged 75.

In her younger days, my mom had spent nearly four decades working as an English-speaking tourist guide at one of Kyivs most revered sights the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a millennium-old cave monastery. In 1982, when Kyiv celebrated its 1,500th anniversary, she graced the cover of the Polish magazine Przyja (Friendship) so young, radiant and energetic. Throughout her career, she guided thousands of people from all continents and all walks of life. Her list of VIPs included International Olympic Committee Chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch and other dignitaries like the head of the Pakistani General Staff. She saw in-person First Lady Raisa Gorbachev, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite. Did she love her job? She was married to it.

Now shes a mess anxious and depressed, insomniac and psychotic, underweight and constipated, socially isolated and cognitively impaired. Like my dad in his final years, she fully depends on me.

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Letter from Ukraine: How will my mom survive if I'm drafted? - POLITICO Europe