A Biloxi family rescued their matriarch from Ukraine. Now they fight to get back home.
Biloxi resident Antonina Godfrey’s daily calls to her mother, Hanna Khmyz, were one of the only things that kept her from worrying about the 80-year-old living alone and without transportation on the other side of the world.
But one of her most recent Skype calls had the opposite effect.
“She was in the dark, using a flashlight to get around,” Antonina said.
When asked why she wouldn’t turn on a light, Khmyz said the lights would make her home a target for Russian air raids and attacks.
Khmyz is from Khmelnytsky, a city with the population of Baton Rouge. The city is at the heart of Ukraine, about a five-hour drive west of the capital, Kyiv.
Antonina and her husband, Bruce, left Biloxi on March 7 and landed in Warsaw, Poland the following day. They arranged through family friends for Khmyz’s evacuation.
“She’d rather be home right now, as most Ukrainians would,” Bruce said. The Godfreys left their hotel at 5 a.m March 9 and reunited with Khmyz in Dolhobyczow, a small town near the Poland-Ukraine border.
The application process for a green card for a relative of a U.S. citizen can take up to three years. The Godfreys applied for Khmyz’s green card last June and hoped the current conflict might shorten the wait.
“All countries open to Ukraine do an expedited Visa. But, we’re still waiting,” Bruce said from Poland, where he, his wife and his mother-in-law have been sharing a room for nearly three weeks.
Despite being vaccinated and having their boosters, the whole family also suffered from mild cases of COVID while overseas. They have taken an indefinite leave from work and will have at least one additional leg of their trip before being able to return to Biloxi.
Khmyz has been halted at step nine of the 12-step green card application process, which is actually progress. Bruce reached out to Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith when the process stalled after step three, the payment of fees. “She has been very helpful,” Bruce said. “She didn’t get us pushed to the front of the line, but that wasn’t what we asked for, just to check on our case.”
The next step will be an interview. A date and time has not been set, but the family has been told the interview will take place in Frankfurt, Germany.
“Things are just so backed up in Warsaw. But now that we’ve got it figured out, we’re making the best of it,” Bruce said. Once done with the interview, Khmyz will have a medical exam and the family will await approval.
For now, they spend their days taking walks, meeting families in similar situations and searching the internet for alternatives.
With an indefinite timeline, some have recommended that the Godfreys wait out the process from home. Even Khmyz has voiced concerns to her family. “She said she kind of feels like a burden,” Antonina said. “But in no way is she a burden to us.”
“When we finally get back to Biloxi, we may never leave again,” Bruce said. “Either way it goes, we’re not leaving here without Mom. That’s not an option.”
This story was originally published March 27, 2022 at 8:30 AM.
