When she left Ukraine, an opera singer made room for a most precious possession
She and her daughter carried one small suitcase for toiletries, clothes and shoes. But she made sure she had room for a few items with deep sentimental value.
Earlier this year in Khmelnytskyi, western Ukraine, Olha Abakumova, an opera singer, and her husband, Ihor, a tubist, put their then-7-year-old daughter Zlata on a pile of blankets in the bathtub to sleep. If a missile were to strike, the bathroom seemed like the safest place in their ninth-floor apartment.
The Khmelnytskyi Philharmonic Orchestra, where they both worked, initially closed after Russia's invasion. A month later,
