On the second day of the full-scale invasion, a Hungarian photographer in the Kiev subway took a photo of a woman who was feeding a child. Later, an artist from Dnipro turned it into an icon, and a priest of Ukrainian origin placed it in an Italian temple.
The photo of the guardian mother quickly spread like a net. Since that time, the child has turned one year old.
The family left Kyiv
Tatyana Bliznyak from Kiev, together with her husband and daughter, now lives with her grandmother in the Lviv region . From Lviv to that town – approximately an hour and a half.
According to the woman, the family left Kyiv and went to a safer region in order to save their daughter.
On February 25, the day the photo was taken, we spent the night in the subway. And when we went down to the station, my daughter woke up, we had to feed her. She spread a blanket for herself, sat down, fed, and such a coincidence that at that moment journalists came in, asked to take a photo, and we did not refuse, – Tatyana recalls.
Later, this photo was seen by a Dnipro artist who decided to turn it into an icon.
“I simply personified all the women of Ukraine who were hiding in the subway at that time. Somewhere in the cellars, a girl is sitting in anguish, an advertisement, a subway map is visible from behind, and it seems to me that this is perfectly connected,” said the artist Marina Solomennikova.
Then the priest placed this icon in a temple in the suburbs of Naples.
“The image refers to the suffering experienced by the Mother of God, who had to flee from the persecution of Herod, she was a refugee in Egypt. She is now very close to our realities,” said priest Vyacheslav Okun.
The artist turned the photo into an icon/Photo TSN is an accident
The fact that I got into the frame of journalists and this photo flew around the world, gained popularity, it did not affect our lives much, except that several times gave interviews,” the woman added.
Her daughter Mashenka is already a year old. Her first birthday was celebrated at her grandmother's house.
The family has 2 pugs – Phoebe and Buffy. The latter also fled the war. She was abandoned in the Kharkov region. Volunteers found the dog and posted a photo asking for asylum. Tatyana immediately realized that this was a new friend.
“Any sound – she immediately exploded, started up and barked like a watchdog. She didn't sleep. More precisely, she was already falling asleep from fatigue, but sitting,” the woman recalls
According to her, everything is fine with her daughter – she is growing, developing.
“She runs, that is, she is not aware of what is happening. This is very pleasing. We also turn off the lights, we spend a lot of time in in the dark, but she somehow reacts to it calmly,” Tatyana noted.
The woman summed up that the war had radically changed the life of her family. It is scary and painful to tears, but difficulties unite, and the thirst for victory gives strength to fight.
Tatyana plans to return to Kyiv after the victory. She hopes that this will happen in the spring.
