The Hlushchenko family has established a second home in Nelson over the past three years, but they long for their real home in Kyiv, Ukraine.
"If I came back to Kyiv, I would smell it again, and I would cry," Oleksandra Hlushchenko said. "The smell of the air, it's different. It's true, and that smell will be like the smell of chestnuts and the river. ...
"I miss the beautiful architecture like beautiful old buildings with the history you may learn and admire. We liked to go everywhere, to go to museum, theatre, opera, botanic garden. There is a giant, big green garden. And you may walk there, you may see different flowers, different trees. So there are a lot of beautiful sights."
Her husband Serhii said in Kyiv there is a "spiritual feeling" because of the history, and a similar but different feeling in Canada because of being surrounded by wild nature.
The couple came to Nelson as refugees from the war in Ukraine in May 2022, shortly after the Russian invasion on Feb. 24 of that year, with their twin boys who are now 10 years old.
According the United Nations Refugee Agency, there are now 6.9 million Ukrainian refugees internationally and another 3.7 million displaced within the country by the war, which is still ongoing. The agency reports that more than 12,640 civilians have been killed and over 29,000 injured since February 2022.
The Nelson Star interviewed Serhii and Oleksandra Hlushchenko a few days after their arrival in 2022. Now, on the third anniversary of the invasion, we spoke with them again about their life here and their thoughts about Ukraine and Canada.
During their first few months in Nelson, Tanya Finley and Brent Holowaychuk shared their home with Hlushchenkos.
"What they did during those months," said Oleksandra, "they took care of everything while we were so depressed and we were so frustrated because we came to a new city in new country, and a lot of things are different. It was so unexpected and warm. We fell into their arms, and they helped us, and we are very, very grateful for that."
In addition to that community support, the Hlushchenkos, who lived in Kyiv, a city of about three million, appreciate the quiet and the beauty of nature here, and the convenience of the compactness of the town. They are also thankful for their jobs, and for their boys' new friendships and their school.
But the children miss Kyiv too, and they especially miss their grandparents.
"They cry and say that they remember Ukraine," said Oleksandra. "They remember what they did there, how they played with their toys, how they went in the kindergarten. It's so sad for them."
But the children feel safe in Canada.
"They don't have to run to the basement because of the missile attacks. They don't have that stress."
Missile attacks were a terrifying part of life during the family's last months in Ukraine, both in Kyiv and in their escape from by car across the country.
"Three years ago, I slept in my own bed for the last time," said Oleksandra. "We left meals on the kitchen table, food in the fridge — it wasn’t a planned or prepared move. It felt like an alien abduction: sudden, unforeseen, and completely beyond our control."
A Ukrainian phone app pushes audible siren alerts from a chosen area or city in Ukraine if it is being attacked or bombed. The Hlushchenkos sometimes open the app and keep an eye on the safety of the neighbourhoods their parents live in.
Oleksandra said she and her husband are worried about their parents, who are in turn concerned about them because they are thousands of kilometres away in a foreign country.
Serhii says he sometimes calls his homesick kids' attention to these real-time sirens in Ukraine.
"I showed to my son, 'Look now in here, sirens. You are lucky that you are here. Calm down. Let's play music.'"
Music and insurance
There is a lot of music in the Hlushchenko household.
In Kyiv, the family founded and ran a music school where Serhii taught guitar and Oleksandra looked after customer service. The school, which employed several guitar teachers, was popular and growing.
Serhii said he has so far been unable to recreate this role for himself in Canada. He has some online students in Ukraine, and he is teaching his sons, but otherwise he works at Safeway, in a job he appreciates, among people he says are very helpful to him in learning English. But his goal, he says, is to be a music teacher again.
"He is a great music teacher," said Oleksanda. "He had very thankful students who now play amazingly. He felt like a fish in the water there."
Serhii recently got a job offer from a music school in Edmonton, but turned it down because the prospect of changing communities now seemed too daunting at this point in their lives.
Oleksandra, meanwhile, who spoke much better English than her husband on arrival in Canada, took some courses here and now works as a personal insurance advisor in a Nelson agency. Serhii praised his wife's ability to connect with people and said her customer service skills are "super professional."
"I just love my clients," she said, "and I want to be useful for them. And Serhii, he wants to teach. That is why he is successful in his field."
Oleksanda said the process of getting their permanent residency – which they received in December – was exhausting and stressful. Getting residency in Canada is infamously long and arduous, with uncertain and unpredictable timelines and policies.
For a long time the question was: "If we don't get our PR before our work visa runs out, what then?"
With that uncertainty behind them, their adaptation to Canada continues, as does the volatility of the situation in Ukraine.
"The future of Ukraine is unforeseen." said Oleksandra. "Everything is changing all the time, and we don't know what is going to be tomorrow. That is why we are here. That is why immigrants are all over the world from Ukraine.
"Let it be peace in Ukraine. We want to see peace and flowering of chestnuts."
