MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — A teacher at Menomonee Falls High School has recently picked up several extra jobs to help her family back home in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
"Any minute now I can basically lose my child," said Nataliya Gissibl.
It's a frightening time for Gissibl. She lives with her daughters in Menomonee Falls but has a 19-year-old son, Nils, working on the frontlines in Kharkiv.
"He goes to medical college and he's helping soldiers who are badly wounded," she said.
Gissibl works full-time as a teaching assistant for special needs students at the high school, but has been picking up extra jobs so she can send money back to him.
"I'm sending all my recent paychecks. I pledge to myself, if I need to have four jobs, I'll go and find job number four in order for Ukraine to get a victory."
But working more jobs is nothing like what her son is going through in Ukraine. Each phone call to him is a mix of emotions for her.
"I hear constantly shooting, constantly shooting and people crying," she said.
When asked where her son is now, Gissibl said, "I have no idea."
She believes signal outages after the Russian attacks has made it difficult to communicate.
"Yesterday there was an attack. The bombs hit their television station and there was no electricity. They lost all wireless system and I'm living hour by hour actually," Gissibl said.
She has nothing but hopes and prayers that her son is still alive.
"It's very hard for me right now," she said.
Close family friends of Gissibl have created a fundraising page to help ease the financial burden. For more information on how to donate click on this link.
