Return Home for Ukrainian Mother Visiting Daughter in North Texas Now Uncertain

Looking through photos right now is the only reliable way for Oksana Head and her mother to see the faces of loved ones in Ukraine.

“I can’t sleep – I can’t eat,” Head said.

Head is not alone in that sentiment of renewed stress and uncertainty but she admits it helps to have her mom by her side.

“Mama is an optimist mama is positive, a more positive person,” Head said.

Positive but understandably worried now.

While she loves visiting her daughter and son-in-law in North Texas, the home for Liydudmila is in Ukraine and she has no idea when she will return.

Translating from Russian, Head says her mother's heart and mind are back with her family, friends and neighbors.

“Mama said she’s ready to go right now,” Head said. “Every day she wakes up and she told me ‘I will go, I will go’ and I said mom ‘where?  How will you help?”

The family asked NBC5 not to share Liydudmila’s last name because her small town is just 20 minutes from the most intense Russian shelling in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv.

Her son, Oksana’s brother, is there too.

Head says they could not reach him for the last five days until earlier Monday when power was restored allowing her to reach her brother online.

“They can’t go to the big city right now because everything is broken - also bombs every time,” Head said.

Liydudmila’s travel visa in the U.S. is good through July, but Oksana and her husband already wonder what’s next if fighting continues and her mom cannot go back.

Head says it seems certain that her mother's return flight set for later in March will not happen now.

"Ukraine doesn’t have right now any airport – it’s all gone," Head said.