Valentyna’s Unexpected Detour

The photograph of her son sits on the windowsill in apartment 14.1Б. Sometimes Valentyna touches it before looking out over the Senior Chudo Village landscape, a silent conversation with a memory that never leaves her.

Her son died on the frontline, defending Ukraine. A 73-year-old former entrepreneur from Snizhne, Valentyna had already survived one displacement in 2014. But losing her only child was a wound that no new home could fully heal.

Renting became her survival mechanism after his death. One room here, another there. Each place a temporary shelter, each move a reminder of her devastating loss. Suddenly, she wasn’t just displaced — she was alone. Grief mixed with the practical terror of not knowing where she would live, how she would survive.

The Dell Loy Hansen foundation offered her more than just a home. They provided a space where she could exist with her grief, where the walls didn’t feel like they were closing in on her memories.

Senior Chudo Village didn’t erase her pain. It gave her a moment to breathe. Clean air, a stable room, a place where the weight of loss could sit beside her, acknowledged but not overwhelming. Her heart attack and microstroke spoke of a trauma that wouldn’t simply disappear.

“Value your freedom, ” she tells younger generations. Her words carry the weight of a mother who has lost her son defending that very freedom. It’s not comfort. It’s a raw, living truth.

The photograph remains on the windowsill. Some days, the light catches it just right, and for a moment, it’s as if her son is still watching over her. Valentyna knows that healing isn’t about forgetting. It’s about finding a way to carry love forward, one day at a time.