The Lupinos family is no exception.
Their daughter, Tamara, is desperately trying to unite them all.
This is their story.
Before Feb. 24, Tamaras life had been orderly, if difficult.
There were calls to her daughter, Anastasia, 28, too.
At 6 a.m. on Feb. 24, everything changed.
Her daughter, in a panic, blurted out: Mom, the wars started.
Melitopol is on fire.
Were coming to you.
But now missiles were falling all over Ukraine.
Anastasia and her family arrived at Tamaras tiny one-room flat just hours after the Russian invasion began.
Tamara tried to soothe Kira and answer her questions but nobody had any answers.
Instead, she spent the first of many long nights of the war sheltering in the bathroom.
The early nightmare days of the invasion unspooled with terrifying speed.
Then the bombardment commenced.
Most of the older residents, Halyna and Mykola Lupinos among them, stayed behind.
In a war that forces brutal choices, Tamara Lupinos was caught between saving her parents or her children.
And where would they all go?
It was constant stress sirens, sleeping in our clothes, Tamara recalls.
Meanwhile, she called her parents every morning.
I asked them so many times to leave.
Still, she knew they wouldnt; they were tied to their home.
Tamaras brother is buried in Orikhiv.
Her father, infirm, couldnt travel.
Safety and comfort elsewhere seemed questionable at best.
Its clearly a conversation Tamara has had with her mother, and with herself, many times.
What can be done?
It ran through deadly crossfire as Russian forces attempted to cut off the Ukrainian army and advance on Zaporizhzhia.
Tamara could not risk visiting her parents or organize a car to bring them to her.
They still spoke several times daily, if the phone connection worked.
But for Tamara, this was excruciating.
Day and night, I feared for my parents, she says.
I still wake up in the morning sometimes and think,No, its a terrible dream.
How are the children?
Only afterward would she speak about herself, says Tamara.
They had tried to get Tamara to go with them.
She refused; it was too far from her parents.
