The tired bodies stuck together, like magnets. The embraces lasted this small eternity that airport reunion lasts. After a month and a half of anguish, Olena Shapovalova was finally able to hug her mother, her sister Raisa, her husband, Igor, and five of her nieces, who fled Ukraine under the bombs.
No translation needed for the Ukrainian words whispered in the ear during the hugs: the joy was visible in the closed eyes, and the relief, palpable. “I don’t know them but it makes me cry,” slipped, moved, an unknown spectator who was waiting at the arrivals at Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport in Montreal.
Standing behind a flag of Ukraine that she had hung, Olena Shapovalova’s daughter, Iana, had waited wisely for three long hours. This little ritual has almost become routine for the 19-year-old, who is welcoming her third family at the airport. Five more are yet to come. “To do all this for them, it keeps us busy and it compensates for all the negative things that we are going through,” she explained.
On the night of February 23 to 24, the Shapovalova family, who immigrated to the South Shore of Montreal almost ten years ago, experienced a mixture of horror and helplessness when they realized that the war had just begun. On the other side of the ocean, their relatives, including Raisa, Igor and five of their six daughters – the eldest living in the United States – organized their departure in disaster.
The next day, the couple took the road with their daughters to the Hungarian border, even Yosik the dog and Chester the cat were there. Since visa applications were made quite early before the rush, they could be processed quickly. Despite everything, it was difficult to obtain appointments for the taking of biometric data in one of the three centers located near Ukraine. They finally succeeded in this step, at the cost of a few round trips to Berlin.
Efforts and a caring network
But none of this would have been possible without the help of the Shapovalova family, who from the beginning coordinated the efforts of this evacuation operation remotely according to the needs of each of their eight families. A GoFundMe campaign was immediately set up and has raised more than $36,000 so far to help pay for plane tickets, immigration costs and other living expenses for nearly 40 people, including about 30 wishes to come to Quebec.
“We don’t really have a family in Europe so we are the only ones who can welcome them”, underlined the young Iana. “Even if we tell them that Canada is an extraordinary country, we don’t try to convince anyone. We just want to give them the choice. »
The campaign web page is updated with small victories, such as when a family gets their visa or lands in Dorval. “With my parents and my brothers, we form a whole team! “, says the very resourceful Iana, who has the unofficial title of spokesperson. “Everyone has their role with us, and my dad is the leader. »
In the Greenfield Park delicatessen where mum Olena works, a sign displaying photos of the eight families attracts the attention of customers every day who ask questions and sow a few words of encouragement. “There are even people who have brought bags of donations. The generosity of people touched my heart,” she says. Word of mouth did its work and the wave of solidarity swept through to friends of friends. This is how the Shapovalovas found rooms, even entire basements, to house their loved ones during their quarantine and beyond.
Horrors in Mariupol
Last summer, during a stay in Ukraine, Olena Shapovalova had proposed to her mother Tamara to return with her to Canada since she had a visa still valid from a previous visit. But the septuagenarian preferred to stay in Mariupol. “When I left, she looked at me without saying anything. I could see something in her eyes that said ‘this is the last time,’” recalls Olena, feeling happy to see her mother again, although a little worried by her frail figure and emaciated face.
Over the past few weeks, Tamara has had to take refuge in a church in Mariupol with her relatives and around 100 people. “There was no electricity and no food. To get water, they melted snow,” says Iana. Outside, a rain of shells ripped open the decor, carrying away everything in the city. Its soul and that of its inhabitants, including that of Nikolai, one of Tamara’s sons.
“With other men, my uncle sometimes went out to get some food from the bombed houses,” Iana explained. “Digging through the debris, they sometimes found people in basements and took them to church. One evening, leaving for one of his rounds, Nikolai never returned. His body was found on the ground, next to his vehicle hit by a missile.
To leave Mariupol and get out of the country, Tamara literally went through horror, city by city. Zaporizhia, Dnipro… On the GoFundMe page, Iana described each stage of her grandmother’s flight to join another of her daughters, Raisa. “The windows of their cars were shattered by the gunfire. They’ll be back on the road as soon as it’s fixed. […] Please pray for a miracle. »
Prayers were answered Tuesday night when the plane touched down on the tarmac at Trudeau Airport. “They’ve been on the road for more than a month, so they felt a great calm when the plane landed,” said Iana, who translated her uncle Igor’s words. “My uncle says he is finding an atmosphere of normal life, as if Canada were their home. »
On their tired faces, a smile of recognition hangs. “My aunt wants to say thank you to those who help Ukraine. Without this help, none of this would have been possible. That’s a lot of love. »