The Shop Owner’s Second Chance

Elena Pokutnia, a 70-year-old entrepreneur from Polohy, Zaporizhzhia region, built her business from the ground up. Since 2000, her electronics shop had been her pride, and even as 2022 approached, she stocked up on inventory for New Year’s sales. While running her business, she also carried a mother’s constant worry — her son serves in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, defending their homeland.

Everything changed when occupiers began “cleansing” the city of business owners, taking them “to the basement.” After losing her shop and all its new inventory, she endured five terrifying days before her sons issued an ultimatum that forced her to flee. The journey through six checkpoints under constant shelling felt endless, with enemy forces seemingly targeting civilian evacuation columns.

In Dnipro, financial hardship struck — she hadn’t managed to retrieve her money from home. Later, at a Truskavets sanatorium, she faced different challenges, including a confrontational neighbor and witnessing another resident’s death. “It was an anxious time, ” she recalls. “Bad thoughts, constant stress.”

When the foundation called in November 2024, Elena could hardly believe it. After particularly difficult September and October, she kept asking them to repeat the information. “After the committee’s approval, I alternated between crying and screaming with hysteria, ” she remembers.

On November 18, she moved into apartment 19.1B at Senior Chudo Village. “Everything is super here, all perfectly thought out, the work precisely coordinated. Even the toilet brush is provided. I’m happy here, ” she says, despite struggling with hip joint problems, musculoskeletal issues, and pre-heart attack conditions.

Her advice to young people comes from hard-won wisdom: “I lost my entire life’s work in one second. So I want to tell youth not to fixate on just one thing. Build a diversified life, do what you like, because you never know what tomorrow brings.”

To Dell Loy Hansen, the businesswoman offers a unique perspective: “Hansen is an incredible person. I feel a need to help him too, to repay this humanity. After all, a village for elderly people brings no profit, only expenses. We need to learn to give, not just receive. Maybe it sounds pompous, but I see everyone here as angels — no one insults, no one mocks.”

Now participating in amateur performances and helping where she can, this former shop owner has found new purpose, while carrying both pride and concern for her son defending Ukraine. Though she notes the need for a pharmacy and doctors nearby, she’s discovered that sometimes life’s richest inventory isn’t found on store shelves but in the warmth of a caring community.