After surviving World War II, Maria Nikolaevna lived a busy and fulfilling life, raising two children, working as an engineer in the Soviet aerospace industry and cultivating a beautiful garden at the family home in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
As she grew old and her husband, Vasilii Emelianovich, died, her horizons narrowed to the confines of her second-floor apartment, with only the view from her window of children playing on the swings and visits from her daughter who lived nearby.
When war returned this year and bombs struck her building after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Maria’s world shrank further – to the confines of a basement across the city.
For the past four months, 92-year-old Maria has lived underground with her daughter, son-in-law, and the family cat. She gets…