"This is a picture of my grandmother Olena Lutsenko holding my father in her arms. This photo was taken near their house in Debaltseve. Grandmother Lena sewed everything by herself, she had a large number of patterns for sewing and clippings from magazines at home. My grandmother sewed everything: dresses, shirts for children and her husband who was a railroad worker in Debaltseve, even overcoats. She is wearing a chiffon dress which she made herself, and a straw hat with a ribbon that fell down her back. She loved these kinds of hats. Back then in Debaltseve, such things could only be obtained in semi-legal ways. My grandmother is wearing shoes, but made of fabric - leather shoes were very difficult to obtain and were very expensive.
My grandmother had a big and nice book of patterns. My mother says that they were all very good, and the things sewn according to these patterns fit perfectly. My grandmother gave this book to my mother, but when we left the occupied territory in 2021, it was taken from us directly at the checkpoint. ORDLO (SDDLR - Separate districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) has a rule forbidding to carry out books published before 1971, old paintings or icons through a checkpoint".
Comment by Oksana Filobokova.
This photo is contributed by Oksana Filobokova.
