Mother crosses the Ukrainian border and saves a stranger's two, young children
There are stories that cannot help but move us to tears - stories of humanity, of courage and of extreme solidarity that once told or once read, can forever change the way we see the world and the people who live in it. Although we live in a particularly dark time, where it is very difficult to see the best in humanity, hope must never be extinguished, and this riveting, emotional story of courage and rescue is a perfect testimony to illustrate this...
via Reuters
Today we want to tell you about a Ukrainian woman named Nataliya Ableyevaha who, in the midst of the great exodus of the population from the European nation being crushed by the invasion of the Russian army, saved the lives of two children who were not her own. Doing so, she managed to keep alive the promise of their father - a man she had never met before. The woman was fleeing her country to safety and was about to cross the border between Ukraine and Hungary when she met a desperate 38-year-old man and father. He was not allowed to leave Ukraine: because of his age, he had been drafted to fight and defend his country from the Russian invaders. Nevertheless the man, who was also the father of a family, wanted to make sure his two children were evacuated from the war-torn country to save them from the horrors and risks of armed combat and have them delivered safely to the arms of their mother, who was waiting for them in Hungary and was ready to then take them on to Italy.
Nataliya didn't think twice when she heard the very sad story of the father of this family. Acting with great kindess, she took the two children by the hand and escorted them with her over the border. She treated the children as if she were their mother. Nataliya herself had two grown-up children: a policeman and a nurse - both of whom had been required to stay in Ukraine to serve and defend their besieged country. Nataliya said, "Their dad, a stranger to me, just handed over his two children to me and trusted me blindly, giving me their passports to cross the border to take them to be with their mother, safe and sound."
When the two children crossed the border between Ukraine and Hungary with the brave Nataliya, they sat down on a bench and waited diligently with other refugees for their cell phone to ring and for their mother, who was waiting for them just beyond after the border of the Hungary, to pick them up and take them on to the safety of Italy. When Natalyia finally met up with the mother of the two children, Anna Semyuk, she burst into tears of joy and relief and she hugged the childrens' mother as if she were one of her best friends or a relative.
This was an emotional hug between two women that says much more than a thousand empty words, and that shows us a rare side of war that is decidedly more humane, and which certainly gives us hope that peace can come - and the hope that it will come as soon as possible.
