Father Left All Alone After Wife, Mother-In-Law, and 3-Month-Old Daughter Die On The Same Day

No parent should have to go through burying their child. For Yuri Glodan, the heartwrenching loss was tripled when not only his three-month-old daughter, but his wife Valeria and mother-in-law Lyudmila also died during a Russian missile strike on their apartment building on Saturday.

According to The Daily Mail, two Russian cruise missiles had slammed into the third and fourth floors of their apartment block at 2.30 pm last Saturday afternoon. Eight people have died in what people are calling Putin's Easter massacre.

At their funeral, the grieving father questioned why this happened to his family. He asked over and over again while clutching his infant's favorite soft toy. Kira was his first child. He recalled his wife Valeria as "perfect," describing how she was a "gift from God." "We are honouring the memory of a mother and daughter who tried to protect their child," Alexander Malichenko, the cathedral's archpriest said. "We always need to remember that God is above us. He will punish those who committed these crimes. These people, especially this child..." he said, pointing to Kira's tiny coffin, "…they will be forever in heaven as heroes." The grieving father's eyes were locked in on the coffins throughout the service. 

“So far, eight deaths have been confirmed, including a 3-month-old baby, a little girl from Odessa who never got a chance to live,” Odessa mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said Saturday. According to The New York Post, he added to Russia, “You will burn in hell, you scum!” Yuri condemned the actions of Putin, calling him a “terrorist” in charge of a “terrorist-state” at his family's funeral on Wednesday, according to British Russia-based news agency East2West news. “Putin is the terrorist, and Russia is a terrorist-state, a murderer. Parents should not bury their children,” he said. “We must instead enjoy life, raise our children, rejoice in the sun, the people, people must not die.”

Yuri told BBC that he and Valeria had been together for nine years. "She could find joy in everything. Odesa was her favourite city. She worked in PR and she could communicate with a lot of people, understand them. I admired what a good writer she was," he said. "She was a great mother, friend, with all the best qualities. It will be impossible for me to find somebody else like Valeria. She was perfect. Such a person could be given to you only once in a life and it's a gift from God." Their baby's birth had brought them so much joy. "We were so happy when she was born," he shared. "I was in the maternity hospital when she gave birth. It's very hard for me to realize now that my daughter and wife are no longer here. All my world was destroyed yesterday by a Russian missile. What is happening is grief for my family, for our city, for Ukraine, it's a grief for the whole civilization. I hope our story helps to stop this war." The deaths of three generations of a single family have sparked shock and outrage. Speaking on the death of baby Kira, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address to citizens, "How did she threaten Russia? It seems that killing children is just a new national idea of the Russian Federation."

References:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10760869/Heartbreaking-scene-dad-bids-farewell-three-loved-ones-killed-apartment-block-attack.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61210699

https://nypost.com/2022/04/27/father-of-slain-ukrainian-infant-says-putin-is-a-terrorist/

Representational Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo By michellegibson