Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
‘My heart is there’
North Wales woman was visiting family in Ukraine days before Russian invasion began
The war in Ukraine has brought a new routine of daily phone calls for North Wales resident and native Ukrainian Tetiana Rottler, whose brother, mother and friends remain in the war-torn country.
“I talk to them every day, of course, to check,” she said. “You check with everyone if they’re alive. You just ask, ‘hi, are you OK?’”
“My brother is at the front line. He’s been there for a year because they always have defense at the border with Russia,” she said.
“Her mom has Alzheimer’s and she needs 24/7 care,” said Thomas Rottler, Tetiana’s husband and an instructor at Indian Valley Scuba in Harleysville.
Before the war, there were several families of caretakers who rotated times caring for Tetiana’s mother, but now there is only one person taking care of her, said David Valaika, Indian Valley Scuba’s owner.
Tetiana’s biggest concern is that her mother cannot be moved, Thomas said.
After visiting with her family, Tetiana returned to the U.S. just four days before the Russian invasion, the couple said.
“She was scheduled to come back here later, but then the flight was cancelled,” Thomas said. With the airport about to be closed, Tetiana was able to get a flight home the day before the airport closed, he said.
Tetiana said she has mixed feelings about having returned to the U.S. from Ukraine.
“My heart is there, but my husband is here and it’s safer here than there,” she said.
Along with checking in daily on her family, she also monitors chat rooms to get information on ways to help them and others remaining in Ukraine, she said.
“People who have to survive, they don’t have time to look for this information and I can,” Tetiana said.
“Glory to Ukraine,” she said.
Donations to help the people of Ukraine may be dropped off at Indian Valley Scuba for the next month, Valaika said. The collection was kicked off at the monthly Dive Club meeting on March 8 and will wrap up at the club’s April 12 meeting, after which the collected items will be packed up and delivered to the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee in Philadelphia. A list of items being collected, including medical supplies, hygiene items, baby formula, diapers, linens and other items is available at UUARC.org.
Cash donations are also needed, particularly to purchase some of the medical supplies, UUARC Executive Director Motrja Watters said at the March 8 Dive Club meeting.
Aid is being sent to Poland, from which it is taken into Ukraine, she said.
“There are areas that are so desperate that they can’t get food, they can’t get water, they can’t get medical supplies,” Watters said. “People are being shot just because they’re Ukrainian.”
Efforts to assist refugees are getting started, she said.
Camp mats are one of the things needed for the refugees, she said.
Watters said there has been a “tremendous response” from people making donations.
“Everybody has really stepped up,” she said. “Everybody is helping.”
As time goes by, though, numbness will start to come on, she said.
“Don’t forget about the Ukrainian people. They will still need our help,” she said.
That need will remain for a long time, she said.
“Even if it stops tomorrow, they destroyed so much of that country that the rebuild is gonna be tremendous,” Watters said of the effects of the Russian invasion.
There will be a rebuilding, though, she said.
The Ukrainian people have shown their strength in the resistance offered to the attack and are strong and will survive, she said.
“Their souls, their strength, can’t be broken,” Watters said.
The Dive Club, which meets the second Tuesday of the month, includes members who are not divers, Valaika said.
Other collections, including for soldiers serving overseas, have previously been held by the Dive Club, he said.