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4 Friday, March 24, 2023brooklintowncrier.com There was a day, early in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when bombs were being dropped near Oksana Valevska's home in Odessa. "I remember my kids," she recalls."They just fell on the ground because there were missile by missile like every 30 seconds and there were about 10 of them and my kids just fell on the floor and they started crying like, 'Mom, are we going to die now?' "I was like 'No, no, no, no, don't worry, that's just loud noise, no worries, no worries'. Probably if I reacted the other way, I would be panicking. But I would keep smiling, so inside I was shaking and crying and horrified. I would be smiling, no, no, no, don't worry, that's just, you know, it's like an earthquake, no worries. Put on a happy face. "And then I realized that we have to, you know, we have to run. But something kept me there, you know, because every single day, I hope that it would be over. "I couldn't believe that such nonsense can happen in such a modern world." Well qualified As she admits, life had been good for her and her family before. With graduate degrees in psychology and pedagogy, she'd been teaching at a college in Odessa where she grew up. The city is a major port on the Black Sea and became an early target for Putin's forces. She also had a certificate in aesthetics and permanent makeup and, after five years of medical study, was within a year of another degree. However, with the war, her qualification exams were canceled and thus the diploma as well. Aside from her teaching job, she'd also worked as an aesthetician, a role she's carried over to her new Brooklin home. In the Ukraine, teaching positions don't pay as well as here, hence the need for the two jobs. "Because I can say that at that time, just before the war, I had such an interesting thought that well, now looks like I've achieved everything I wanted. I have a job of my dreams and my kids are healthy, they are with me, I have a wonderful house and I have no money issues, right?" Strong English Her spoken English is excellent, accented of course, and in the five months she's been in Canada, she's made a point of reading English books and watching English TV. She'd been exposed to the language in school and years back, before marriage and children, she worked on Royal Caribbean Cruise lines as a pool attendant. The invasion, however, not only came as a surprise but the reactions of people in Odessa were such that none could quite believe it was happening, even though Putin's troops had been massing along the eastern border for some time. "The people of Odessa, it being a really important strategic area militarily, was there in the time leading up to February 24th, a feeling that, do you hear what the Russians are doing," she says. "We were reading about it. "Nobody believed. It was too crazy. No reason. We just, all the time we thought that it was just a threatening, you know, like showing off like we are powerful, shake, tremble, why would it happen." Lip blush She recounts what she calls "a funny situation" a week before the war started. She had a patient come for some treatment. She joked with the woman, "Oh well, you are going to do your lip blush, but if the war starts, why do you need it?" Her customer's matter-of-fact reply was, "Well, just imagine the war starts and I have a beautiful lip blush." Her home was located about midway, about kilometre each way, between the international airport and a naval station. "So these two objects were being bombed all the time and we were just in the center in the middle of it. So let's say every day was very risky and let's say we were playing risky games, staying there. Actually I did not realize that this was happening at the beginning and then I couldn't realize that it would go on. "And everybody hoped that it would end one day because it was nonsense, you know, what was happening." A dream The day it began, on the morning of Feb. 24, 2022, she woke Steph & Elle Real Estate | Since 2012 Interview Us! 905.441.7171 info@stephandelle.com FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, YOUTUBE AND TIKTOK! www.stephandelle.com Steph & Elle in numbers: 20+ years combined direct real estate selling experience! Consistently TOP 1% of ALL Realtors in TREB! Consistently RE/MAX TOP 50 Small Teams in CANADA! Consistently #2 Individual Realtor in Brooklin! We are two, enthusiastic and dedicated, full-time RE/MAX Real Estate Agents who love working hands-on with our clients! When you hire the Steph & Elle Team, you get Steph & Elle! Who are Steph & Elle? Elle Potvin Steph Mitchell Call Your Local Brooklin Call Your Local Brooklin Realtors, Steph & Elle Realtors, Steph & Elle From Odessa to Brooklin By Richard Bercuson continued on page 5