Hi, we are twins Nicole and Denys Deyneko. We were 1 year and 1 month old when our big and beautiful house was hit by two Russian bombs. Our mom, Grandma, and uncle who himself was still a kid died with us. We lived in Zhytomyr Region in the village of Yurivka. The house where we were having a happy childhood is now destroyed.

We were very little and were only starting to learn basic life skills. My sister Nicole was a good walker and I could barely keep up with her! She started talking a little sooner than me too, she was already able to call for mom, Granny, or Grandpa. They say I was calmer than her, slower, while she was a quick laugher. But we both were playful and active kids.

For the last half a year we and our mom lived with her parents and younger brother. Mommy managed to take care of us and study at the same time. She wanted to work as a landscape designer in Kyiv. She made a beautiful garden with flowers in our yard. We would have loved to play in it but when it was in blood we had been still too little.  

We liked to spend time with our Granny in the evenings. She used to sing for us and we danced together. Our uncle was very fun. Despite the fact that he still was just a teenager himself he could babysit and play with us. Sometimes our great-grandma visited. She loved us very much and helped mom look after us when she had finals. We had a lot of toys. One of our favourite ones was a flower that repeated everything after us and sang songs, our Grandpa gave it to us. He often treated us to different toys.

A black cat lived with us in our house. It was mom`s pet Masik. Although, since we had learned to run after him he rarely came back inside. Just to have lunch, nap a little, and back outside. Maybe, he didn`t like our hugs that much. We weren`t allowed to go near the big German Shepard called Aydar. Now that we are gone our pets live with our relatives. 

On the day the bombs fell on our house everyone was at home except our Grandpa, he was at work. Only the pets survived. Our Grandpa misses us very much. Now he finds meaning in life by helping others.