Heart at Home. Tetiana Cherevko: “There is no more hope. But there is life that must be held on to”

The story of Tetiana Cherevko – a woman who lost her husband at the front but continues to hold on to life, home, and love in her heart. This was reported by Upmp.news, citing the blog of the author, volunteer, journalist, blogger, and public activist Liudmyla Pedochenko.

She says this calmly, without anguish:
– There is no more hope. My husband was killed.

In her voice – not despair, but strength born from pain.
Tetiana Cherevko lost her husband Dmytro, but preserved the most important things – dignity and love.
Now she lives for both of them. Because she has someone to live for.

When on February 24, 2022, Dmytro Cherevko came to the military enlistment office, he was refused – he had three underage children.
But he did not stay at home. For a month, he served in the local territorial defense, and already in March he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine – the 118th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade.

“He couldn’t wait. He said he couldn’t watch others go to fight. He silently packed his things,” Tetiana recalls.

In September 2022, Dmytro was wounded near Spirne in the Donetsk region. After a short rehabilitation, he returned to the front.
He couldn’t do otherwise. His comrades said: “Dmytro is always the first. He never hid behind others’ backs.”

He was killed on the Kursk front on October 27, 2024.
Tetiana found out about it in the evening. She says she remembers how her chest felt empty – as if the sound of life had been turned off.

Before the war, the Cherevko family lived in the city of Chornomorsk. Dmytro worked in construction, Tetiana – in a store. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the family moved to her parents’ home in the village of Balandyne in the Cherkasy region.

“The children lost their friends, activities, school. There was no work in the village. We planted a garden, started a small farm. But life became hard and joyless,” Tetiana says.

After her husband’s death, she learned to hold her pain in her hands – just as she once held her child.
“I hold on thanks to my daughters. They always support me. As long as we have each other – we live.”

There is no regret in her voice. There is firm certainty: her children must see an example – not of a broken woman, but of a mother who stands tall.

Today Tetiana is not alone. She attends psychological support groups, communicates with women who have also experienced loss.
“We don’t heal each other, we just listen, and that makes it easier,” she says.

In addition, she takes part in volunteer initiatives – helps with the “Building Ukraine Together” projects, donates to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
She says this is her way of staying close to her husband – through action, through kindness.

She plans to move to Lviv with her children. She is looking for a job to support her family.
“I don’t want sympathy. I just want to work and live. Because he would have wanted us to live,” Tetiana says.

The war took her husband, but it could not take away her love.
Because love is not a memory, but a force that keeps the world in place.

Tetiana does not put a period after his name.
She continues the story – in her daughters, in good deeds, in every day that does not allow the darkness to win.

Her heart is not at home – it is the home itself.
The one where memory, faith, and Ukraine live.

This story is part of the documentary project “Heart at Home. Faces of War”, created by the Ukrainian-Polish Media Platform (UPMP.News).
The goal of the initiative is to preserve the faces and voices of Ukrainian women who are waiting, searching, supporting, or have lost their defenders.

We believe that these stories are not only about pain, but also about the light that does not fade even in the darkness of war.
Every voice is a memory.
Every photograph is proof of love.
Every woman is Ukraine.

📸 The project is carried out to document and publish personal stories from the home front – as evidence of the unbreakable hearts that keep beating at home.

👉 If you also want to share your story – fill out the form at the link:
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