Friday 15th April 2022 - part 3
This really is GOOD FRIDAY!
It was also a very good Thursday, as yesterday we found out from Michael Gove and Priti Patel that Katerina has her visa to come to the UK - woop woop woop woop!!!
They wrote in English, Ukrainian and Russian - redacted copy of the letter attached.
So exciting.
Ekaterina said she could not believe it. To be honest nor could I. There have been so many dreadful stories of delays that to see the system work was a shock to my system.
And ....to put the cherry on the icing on the cake - Nora, Betsy,Daisy,Teddy ( Ekaterina's Yorkshire Terriers) and her firend's dog and cat have all been issued with Pet Passports !!!! Photo attached.
We are now a party of 11 beings who will all have homes in Kidmore End/Dunsden. There is Ekaterina plus her 4 YT's who are with us. There is O&A and their dog and cat who are with my parents in Dunsden and T&M who are with Tim and Tracey in Chalkhouse Green. Do you remember the photo on the first evacuation bus from Kharkiv with that wonderful little boy next to Ekaterina? M is the boy aged 10yrs and T is his mum. They got on that bus not knowing where to go and now thanks to Ekaterina and Tim and Tracey they are coming to S. Oxon!!
Photo of the whole troup below.
Steady on tho' - we still have to wait 21days to check that the rabies vaccines have worked and then the plan is to drive from Kidmore End to Calais in a minibus to meet them and bring them all back to Kidmore End Parish.
For the next 21 days they are all in a hotel in Poland...and that is another amazing story. Jakub Golata and his wife Gosia emigrated from Poland to the UK in 2004. They stayed and got jobs here - Jakub with HS2 and his wife with Lincolnshire police. Gosia was on sabbatical looking after her mother in Poland when war was declared and Jakub immediately went out to join them to help with the humanitarian effort. They decided the most helpful thing they could do was to rent a hotel - with 180 rooms - you may have seen them on the news on about 20th March. They now have quite a large organisation with hundreds of volunteers and they are the people who gave Ekaterina the confidence to leave her flat in Kharkiv.
I initially found a mobile phone no.for Jakub in Poland off facebook and called up, out of nowhere, saying
'Hello, my husband saw you on the BBC. I have a single woman in Kharkiv with 4 dogs - Can you help?'
'Of course' he said 'That is what we are here for'.
And since then he has called me intermittently and sent many messages to Ekaterina to re assure her. Now our troup are staying in his hotel and he has sorted the pet passports.
He is our hero!
My wonderful Mum aged 84yrs is keen to drive to Calais to welcome O&A with Dad. James will not trust me to drive, and is better at negotiating wheels over tarmac and Rachel is coming too - so that will be quite a welcome party.
Just for the record, pets have to come into the UK on recommended carriers and or by recommended routes. Only certain airlines are certified and pets have to travel in the hold. So trains/buses to Calais and then the Eurotunnel may well be best.
Finally just to finish off - Michelle from SODC came to inspect Mum's flat and our annexe yesterday and both were passed. Hurrah hurrah hurrah !!
All love Jane
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