Liza’s Story—Intro: A Fateful Premonition
Written by: Sharmishta Rawat, edited by: Clary Estes
The night before the war started, Liza was restless. Something in her bones knew that the next day would be a fateful one—one that would change her life irrevocably. Ever since Russian troops had started assembling at the Ukrainian border, there had been palpable anxiety in the country over a potential invasion. An unimaginable, yet ever-repeating question of Will they? Won’t they? ran through her mind.
An enterprising young woman with a love for baking, Liza had been running a small but growing baking business while studying for her undergraduate degree in her home city of Dnipro. “I started baking when I was twelve,” she explains, “I bake many different desserts. I really like it. It is really interesting for me and it makes me feel comfortable. I am in love with baking”
Before the war, Liza’s future was full of promise and she was looking forward to expanding her small business. “For the last three years,” she recalls, “I had a lot of customers requesting different orders. My small business was growing.”
For the 8th of March, International Women’s Day, Liza had exciting plans. “I was thinking about making some desserts with new flavors. So I started to post about it on Instagram, but…”
“But…”
A single word that spoke volumes. A single word that spoke of the immeasurable helplessness felt by her and her fellow compatriots whose dreams and everyday lives were violently interrupted by the Russian invasion.
For Liza, February was a blur of anxiety and stress. With the looming conflict, Liza’s university had decided to suspend classes. The fear of war resonated everywhere without reprieve. The news constantly repeated the possibility of a Russian invasion. Yet, there had still been a small hope that Russia’s grandstanding at the border was just that, grandstanding. After all, despite Russian President Putin’s long-held assertion that Russians and Ukrainians were one people, to invade another nation in an age of global interconnectedness was utter madness.
Yet, on the morning of the 24th of February, Liza didn’t need her early morning alarm to get out of bed. She woke up with a sinking feeling in her stomach and was greeted by the voice of Ukrainian President Zalensky emanating from the television informing everyone that the war had started.
Coming Next—Part I: The long journey to safety