'16 years of life together in one death certificate': story of Ukrainian defender survived by six children

"Daddy, daddy!" exclaims a girl in pink pajamas with black stars. She is trying to reach the portrait that stands on the table in the living room. Her name is Svitlana. She is one year and nine months old. She does not yet know how to pronounce the word "Hero" and is unaware of what the black ribbon on the photo means.

Her father Yevhen Holovchak was a soldier of the 14th brigade named after Prince Roman the Great. He died on October 8, a few days before returning home. As a father of six children, he had the right to resign from the service. But he did not have time as he tripped a mine.

"Zhenya's coffin was put here, and his portrait was on the window. Svitlana saw the photo and started climbing on the coffin. She shouted: ‘Dad!’ Seeing this, it was impossible to hold back tears..." the widow Lyubov Holovchak recalls with tears.

Love at first sight

Liubov Holovchak runs her hand through a pile of photos. All their life together fits in a small box.

Yevhen Holovchak was 36 years old. He was born in Saky district in Crimea. When he was three years old, his family moved to Volyn in western Ukraine.

"His family had five children, all boys. Zhenya was the youngest, so everyone loved and had compassion for him. He had many friends, always drawing a yard full of peers.”

Yevhen's mother worked as a milkmaid, and his father was a tractor driver. The passion for technology was passed on to the son. Yevhen even designed a tractor himself, which is now used by the family.

After graduating from school, the boy went to work. He dreamed of buying a motorcycle and nice clothes. Since then and throughout his life he worked hard. Most of all, he loved working with wood, was a wood feller, and worked at a sawmill.

Yevhen Holovchak served in the Crimea where he was a sailor. At that time he met his future wife. Back then she was studying in the 11th grade in the village of Kortelisy, in the north of Volyn.

"My cousin served in the army with Zhenya. When he came on leave, he talked about him all the time, and then gave him my number. One day Zhenya called and said: ‘Hello, I am [the Daddy]’. And I responded: ‘”Good for you’. I still don't know why he called himself that," Lyubov recalls.

In those days, the first two seconds of calls were free, and that's how Yevhen and Liubov communicated at first. They met only nine months later. She was 18 years old, he was 20.

"I had an internship at a bar. One day Zhenya came in there. He did not warn me that he was coming. He was in military uniform, with a tan. And this smile with all 32 teeth… I immediately fell in love,” Lyubov Holovchak says, smiling.

“When people ask me if I believe in love at first sight, I always say: ‘Of course, because it happened to us’.”

In June 2007, the couple got married. A wedding was not part of their plans, as both were from poor families. They did not buy wedding rings either.

When he went to the front, he told his son: "If I don't return, you are in charge"

The Holovchaks’ house immediately "gives away" that it’s home to many children. There are toys everywhere. Most of them are teddy bears – one of the boys, Artemko, loves them.

"When we met, Zhenya said: ‘We will have many children – three’. But six were born," the widow says.

The oldest son Vitaliy is 15, Kateryna is 13, Artem is 12, Stas is 10, Alina is 7, and Svitlana will turn 2 in March.

"Zhenya cared about all children equally. He wanted to give them everything he did not have. He was constantly working, and barely left Poland. He missed the kids so much that he could not stand to be without them for more than a month, he came to see them," says Lyubov Holovchak.

"Dad loved us very much," Katya says and through tears struggles to say a word.

In the evenings, when he was not at work, Yevhen Holovchak would gather the kids around him. They played games on the console, he told them stories, taught them to play the guitar.

"Dad taught me to play the first chords and was very happy when I was getting better and better,” says his son Vitaliy.

“We had a close relationship with him. He often took me with him when he went somewhere or repaired cars. He was an interesting interesting person to be around.” 

Yevhen Holovchak taught the eldest Vitaliy everything he knew: how to drive a tractor, a car, and a scooter.

"When my father went to the front, he said: ‘You stay in charge, because I may not come back. If something happens to me, teach the kids everything I taught you’.”

His voice trembles. He barely holds back tears.

"It hasn't been easy for us since the draft notice came"

Yevhen Holovchak received the call-up paper on the third day of the full-scale war. On March 10, he found himself on the front line. According to Lyubov, he went through many hot spots – Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Bakhmut, Lyman, Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts.

On the phone, Yevhen rarely told his wife specific places. She learned this information in the documents that came after his death.

“At one point his company had to move. I knew that there were fierce battles for Lyman. I asked: ‘Will you be sent to the town whose name begins with the first letter of my name?’ And he said: ‘I have already been there’,” says Lyubov Holovchak.

Even on leave, he told almost nothing about the war. He withheld details from his family so that they would not worry about him.

"I asked him if he had a headache, which he suffered before the war. He never complained about anything. When his belongings came from the military unit after the funeral, there were heart and painkiller pills in every pocket. He was taking all of them…” Lyubov recalls.

Even before the war, Yevhen taught Lyuba how to drive a tractor, because in the village you can't do without it if you have gardens. Once her tractor would not start, she complained to her husband, and he said: "Learn to live without me". As if he felt that his life would soon end.

"All 16 years of our life together in one death certificate"

Since Yevhen was a father of many children, he had the right to resign from the service. In October, Lyubov Holovchak collected all the necessary documents. She had to wait a few days.

The last time the couple talked was on October 8. Yevhen had to call a few days later to find out the results of his son's examinations, but was out of reach.

"There was anxiety in my heart. A little later I saw a missed call from an unknown landline number. I checked on the Internet that the call came from the city of Sumy. I thought that my honey was in the hospital. I could not even imagine that he passed away,” the widow recalls.

That day, Lyubov Holovchak and her children were chopping cabbage in the garden. Suddenly she saw a man in military uniform entering the yard.

"I asked him: ‘What happened?’ And he said that my Yevhen was no more: he had blown up on an anti-tank mine and his wound was lethal. Then I don't remember what happened... My children were with me, they heard it all,” Lyubov is overwhelmed with tears.

“This news shook the ground under my feet. He was my world, which the war took away from me."

Yevhen died on October 8 in Kharkiv Oblast near the village of Petropavlivka, Kupyansk district, Kharkiv Oblast.

Her husband sustained a shrapnel wound to the head. His arms were pierced through and through. Yevhen was buried in a closed coffin, because it was the fifth day after his death. And Lyubov did not want her children to remember their father like that.

"I can't tell you how the funeral went, because it was so painful that I did not see anyone... I saw from the photos that a lot of people came. When I was handed the flag, I could barely hold it in my hands. The price of our freedom is so high. For me, this funeral continues to this day... They took everything from me. All 16 years of our life together were brought on that death certificate. A part of my heart was torn out and buried", Lyubov sobs softly.

"Dad doesn't want you to cry"

The flag that covered her husband's coffin was taken by her son Vitaliy and hung in the room. Lyubov has not yet taken the things that were sent from the front out of the package as she could not bear to do it. They are still lying in the attic.

"I used to complain that he rarely gave me flowers. And now I bring flowers to his grave. There were many chrysanthemums growing near the house. I cut them all, brought them for him..." Lyuba says.

The youngest daughters hug their mother. They are her strongest support.

"In the evening, when they hear me crying, they get up from their beds and lie down next to me.” 

Alina says: "Mom, dad is looking down at you and doesn't want you to cry".

This text was prepared by the platform Memorial, which tells the stories of civilians killed by Russia and fallen Ukrainian soldiers. To report data on Ukraine's losses, fill out the forms: for fallen military and civilian victims.

Author: Natalya Khvesyk