War in Ukraine: Mother from Odessa brings 12-year-old boy to safety with godmother

Created: 04/29/2022, 20:00

By: Susanne Weiss

Suddenly family: Larysa (47) and Andreas P. (56) have taken in Danilo (12).

A newly installed wooden gallery in the office offers the boy his own realm.

© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

Danilo has lived in Geretsried since Russia attacked Ukraine.

The twelve-year-old comes from Odessa.

A story about family and gratitude.

Geretsried – Larysa and Andreas P. had a new addition to the family almost overnight.

So far they have lived alone with their cat "Levi" in their two-and-a-half-room apartment in Geretsried.

They have had a teenager at home for almost two months – and they deal with classic parenting issues, but also with a lot of paperwork.

Danilo is twelve years old and grew up in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa.

"One day after the war started, his mother asked me if she could give me her child," says Larysa P. For the 47-year-old there was no question.

Danilo is her godchild.

"If my family needs support, I'll be there."

Geretsriederin worries about family in Odessa

Larysa P. herself comes from the Ukraine.

The accountant met her husband through colleagues, moved to Geretsried in 2013 and built a new life for herself.

Since then, they have been separated from their family by more than 2,000 kilometers.

"I'm very worried," says the woman from Geretsried, referring to the war in Ukraine.

There is an air alert in Odessa every day, and bombs are falling.

But her parents would not want to leave their home.

And men over the age of 18 are not allowed to leave the country.

Unlike his brother, Danilo is still too young for the military.

Wanting to protect him, his mother Natalia, Larysa P's cousin, drove him to the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

The 47-year-old received her godchild there at the beginning of March and flew to Germany with him.

"Danilo was the first refugee child to come to our region," the Geretsried native heard from the youth welfare office.

Danilo gets a tower room from Schreinerei

Her cousin actually wanted to go back.

But in the meantime the situation had become so dangerous that it was not possible.

She also came to the district via detours, found a job with a Geretsried food producer and had the prospect of finding accommodation there.

"But that's nothing for a child," explains Andreas P. "Danilo can stay with us."

Larysa P. has a total of seven godchildren whom she lovingly cares for.

However, the couple was not prepared for her husband and her to record one of them.

So that Danilo doesn't have to sleep on the couch in the living room all the time, the family wanted to have a loft bed built into the home office.

When the carpentry and furniture workshop Hofberger in Dietramszell heard about it, they offered to give it to the family.

The loft bed became a tailor-made intermediate floor, so that Danilo now has his own kingdom in the open roof structure.

"It looks great," says Larysa P. gratefully.

Grateful for helping refugees from Ukraine

In general, the family is impressed by the willingness to help refugees from Ukraine.

"That touches me very much." There is Larysa P's employer, who gave her short-term leave so that she could fly to Romania, and there are the neighbors who have a boy of Danilo's age.

The employees at the asylum office in Bad Tölz were also very cordial.

"They are under a lot of pressure and still find the strength to give everyone their full support," says the 47-year-old.

Then there was the registration as foster parents and the registration at school, where the twelve-year-old attended the welcome class to learn German.

"As a logistician, everything has to be quick for me," says Andreas P. That's why bureaucracy usually pushes him to his limits.

"But everything worked out."

And Danilo?

As is probably the case for all 12-year-olds, his smartphone is more interesting than anything else.

Sometimes Andreas P. snatches it away to show him the offline world.

Then the two of them laugh and plan trips for the weekend.

During the week Danilo has to study a lot.

Parallel to the German school, he continues his online classes in Odessa.

Larysa P.: "He's a good boy."

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