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Today I wept… and wept, then wept some more.

In the group of Ukrainian refugees there was a lady traveling with her daughter-in-law and 9-year old granddaughter. After breakfast, she went out for a walk in the garden. I saw her all alone and I went to her. She was crying! I asked her what her name was and why she was crying. As her tears were falling she told me that her name was Iryna and that she had an only son who tomorrow would have been 43 years of age. But he was no longer with us. While they were fleeing, her son was one of the people killed in Kyiv. For a few moments I couldn’t say a word, but just hugged her and cried with her.

She told me that she withdrew to the Charis garden so she can freely cry, so that her daughter-in-law Ksieniia and granddaughter Natalia (9 years of age) would not see her cry. The little one also learnt of her father’s passing, that he ‘went to become an angel’ (that’s what her grandmother told her).

I wonder how many Ukrainian children will hear these days that ‘daddy left to become an angel?’ How many children from Ukraine will never see their fathers again and will only remember their faces in pictures?

Let us pray for them! Let us embrace them with our love! Let us show them compassion! Let us help them in any way we can! Let us weep with them and their families!

Be a part of OPEN HANDS FOR UKRAINE!