(short story based on real facts)

“No valor, no victory.”
(Unknown Ukrainian soldier)

Alexander, a twenty-six-year-old sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was in a coma for almost six hours. A six-foot big shoulder guy, a former champion of Ukraine in single scull rowing, a former A-student at a Mykolaiv college, a former police officer with a good record, was heavily wounded by a tank shot not far from Bakhmut. Three times he got away with minor injuries; this time he lost his leg…

Dnipro doctors declared clinical death…Surely, they did their best, however, the odds for his survival were somewhere 1:9 – the sergent lost too much blood. His bride Oksana, a sad young woman with tired tear-stained eyes, was sitting and stroking the hand of her sweetheart nearby…

Alexander stopped moving and plunged into depressingly dark hallucinations, seeing some funeral graveyard visions with whirly worms wriggling wols over his figure. He did not want to die and whispered the name of Olga with his pale lips getting weaker and weaker, and the worms growing bigger and bigger…

Olga kept on weeping and whispering in response, “I beg you don`t die, Sacha, I beg you…”

Doctors and nurses fussed over the body of Alexander, looking at the screens of medical appliances, making injections and checking his heartbeat with blood pressure…

Suddenly, a gray-haired nurse came closer to Olga, leaned over, and said low in the young womans ear, “Start praying for his salvation, call all his relatives and ask them to join your prayer. If you dont know, I will help you…”

“But I donknow any prayers, my parents are atheists and so am I…”
“There are no atheists in the trenches, just like on the surgery table. If you want to see your honey bear alive, start with ‘Our Fathers Prayer’ and keep on with a prayer to Mary, imploring her for help and protection…”

Olga wiped out her tears and asked, “But where will I take these prayers?”

“You know how to stare at Tik Tok videos for hours and dont know where to seek blessing. You should say, ‘OK Google, I need Our Fathers Prayer,’ that`s all.”

“Do forgive me, somehow I did not think about it.” In a while, Olga called some of her folks and started praying for the health of Alexander. Tears flooded from her eyes, so, she constantly stopped her prayers to take away her tears with a small hanky. However, she continued to ask God for support…

Alexander moved his fingers slowly and tried to raise his hand…Among the gloomy graveyard worms which almost covered all his face, he saw a golden ray of hope, becoming brighter, bolder and bigger. Gradually, the golden beam turned into flashing fireworks with thousands of twinkles falling on his wounded body and warding off all unwelcome worms. Through the hazy veil he heard the optimistic doctor`s voice, “This champ is getting alive, look at the screens! We saved him all together!”

The second doctor remarked, “It looks like a miracle, colleague. I was a bit more pessimistic about the outcome of this operation; he lost too much blood and came to us too late…”

The gray-haired nurse hugged Olga, “Yeah. It is a miracle, an Easter miracle. God always helps those who earn it. Your future husband is a hero, he saved so many lives of his soldiers. They came to us and called him ‘Smart Serg’…”

Olga smiled through streams of tears, “I know it, his bros respect him…” In a while she looked into the eyes of the old woman, “Thank you, I have never prayed before, it`s a real Easter miracle.”

Having recovered, Alexander decided to marry his bride, to go on a honeymoon trip to the Carpathian Mountains and to come back to his military service, working as an instructor. He says that courage is the secret of victories, and the protection of the Motherland is the sense of his life…

P.S. The story is devoted to Volodymyr Dzyubynskyi, a brave Ukrainian serviceman, and his wife.