Ukrainian girl follows her husband to Vietnam to pick vegetables and sell goods online

(Dan Tri) - After walking more than 10km to board the rescue flight and follow her husband back to Vietnam to live, Stadnyk Elizabeth (30 years old, Odessa city, Ukraine) is living a happy and joyful life.

Love Across Borders

When you come to village 6, Nga Tan commune, Nga Son district, Thanh Hoa province, everyone knows Stadnyk Elizabeth. People in this countryside call her by the familiar, easy-to-remember name Liza. When meeting us, Elizabeth smiled gently and said "hello!". Elizabeth has white skin, tall figure, straight nose, and lovely light brown eyes. She is not yet fluent in Vietnamese, only talking to us with simple, short sentences.

Mr. Quyen and his wife took a photo on the day they welcomed a new member in Ukraine (Photo: Provided by the character).

Talking about his relationship with a foreign girl, Trinh Dinh Quyen (38 years old, Elizabeth's husband) clearly expressed his happiness. Mr. Quyen said that in 2008, he went to Ukraine to work as a welder in a mechanical workshop. In 2010, while hanging out in Odessa with a group of friends, he met Elizabeth. At that time, she was in 12th grade. Seeing Elizabeth's innocent, lovely, cheerful and sociable personality, Mr. Quyen asked for information to get to know her. "When I came here to work, I never thought I would love or marry a foreigner, but when I met Elizabeth and talked to her, everything changed. I don't know when I fell in love with her," Mr. Quyen said.

Mr. Quyen and his wife's children were happy when their parents took them to the beach in Vietnam (Photo: Provided by the character).

Elizabeth's impression of her husband is that he is a gentle, smiling, and lovable Vietnamese man. "Quyen thinks carefully, I always feel warm and happy when I'm with him," Elizabeth recalls the first time she met her husband. After knowing each other for a year, Elizabeth brought her boyfriend home to meet her parents in Dnipro city. The first time she met Elizabeth's parents, Quyen was very nervous and tense. He thought that his lover's parents would not accept him because of the geographical, linguistic, and cultural distance. However, that anxiety gradually disappeared, and Elizabeth's parents smiled and welcomed him. According to Elizabeth, her parents praised Quyen for being gentle, polite, and treating people around him sincerely, so they supported their daughter to be with the person she loved. Not long after, Elizabeth became pregnant, and at the end of 2011, Quyen and his wife welcomed their first son, naming him Trinh Dinh Kim. Knowing that her son loved and would marry a girl from the faraway country of Ukraine, Ma Thi La (Quyen's mother) and her husband were worried because their daughter-in-law had a big difference in language and culture. But after many conversations, Mrs. La realized Elizabeth's sincere love for her son, so she agreed and blessed the children. In June 2012, when their first son was over 6 months old, Quyen and his wife held a small, cozy wedding in the city of Odessa, Ukraine.

Walk 10km, return home by rescue flight

In a small house in Odessa, Ukraine, Quyen and his wife live a simple life. Every day, Quyen goes to work at a mechanical workshop, Elizabeth works as a clothing saleswoman at a market, and their eldest son has also started school. The joy doubled when in 2021, the young couple welcomed a new member, a baby girl named Trinh Li A.

After the repatriation journey, Mr. Quyen and his wife are living a happy life in their hometown (Photo: Character provided).

In the midst of a peaceful and happy life, on February 24, 2022, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine turned everything upside down. According to Mr. Quyen, since the conflict began, many Vietnamese people have fled to neighboring countries such as Poland, Moldova, etc. Knowing that the Vietnamese Government would welcome citizens from Ukraine back home on rescue flights in Romania, he felt reassured. In order to board the rescue flight of his homeland, Mr. Quyen and his wife prepared enough food and water for the "escape" to the Moldova border gate. "When we were 10km from the border area between Ukraine and Moldova, the road was blocked by the large number of refugees, packed with vehicles. The car could not move, the whole family of 4 got out of the car, walked 10km for more than 5 hours, in the cold weather of about 10 degrees Celsius, to reach the Moldova border gate," Mr. Quyen recalled.

Elizabeth and her family reunite and live happily in her husband's hometown (Photo: Hanh Linh).

Arriving in Moldova, the people here were very enthusiastic and hospitable, they gave the family food and accommodation. Two days later, Quyen's family continued to receive support from the people here for transportation to Romania. Welcomed by the Romanian people, Quyen and his wife stayed here for another 10 days, then everyone called a car to take them to Bucharest, Romania, and then boarded a rescue flight back to Vietnam. After more than 10 hours by plane, the whole family arrived at Noi Bai airport, Hanoi at 11:30 on March 11, 2022. "The only property they brought was a stroller and a few sets of clothes. When I got on the plane and returned to Hanoi, I felt secure, I still felt happy and lucky," Quyen said. As for Elizabeth, this was the first time she had returned to her husband's house after 10 years of marriage. She was sad, her heart heavy because her country was being devastated. Arriving in Vietnam, Elizabeth called her parents in Ukraine. She told them that Vietnam was peaceful and she loved Vietnam very much, but she also missed her homeland very much.

Pick vegetables, cook rice, sell on Tiktok

The life of a Ukrainian girl as a daughter-in-law in the Vietnamese countryside has attracted much attention. At first, Elizabeth was still confused, did not understand much about Vietnamese culture, and was afraid of many things such as shrimp, crab, raw fish...

Elizabeth and her mother-in-law prepare dinner (Photo: Hanh Linh).

To help Elizabeth adapt to the new environment , Mrs. Ma Thi La was always patient and attentive in teaching her foreign daughter-in-law. Mrs. La said that during her time living with her daughter-in-law, she often talked to Elizabeth and her grandchildren about culture, cuisine , especially meals in Vietnamese families. Specifically, she instructed that before eating, children and grandchildren must invite their grandparents and parents. "Elizabeth was quite bewildered at first, but she was willing to learn and listen, so she quickly adapted to the Vietnamese lifestyle and habits," Mrs. La shared.

Elizabeth likes to wear traditional Vietnamese ao dai (Photo: Character provided).

Next, Mrs. La taught her daughter-in-law the denominations of Vietnamese currency, how to go to the market in her hometown, and then guided Elizabeth in preparing Vietnamese dishes. "She is smart, learns very quickly, and practices very well," said Mrs. La. Realizing that Vietnamese cuisine is very rich, Elizabeth was determined to practice her cooking skills, "winning over" her mother-in-law with dishes she made herself. On holidays and Tet, Elizabeth picked vegetables, made cakes, and cooked meals to offer to her ancestors. Elizabeth said that thanks to the enthusiastic help of her husband's family, she did not encounter too many difficulties in learning and adapting to her new life in Vietnam. Elizabeth also expressed that when she missed her hometown, she and her husband often made Ukrainian dishes that she liked together.

Elizabeth happily with her mother-in-law, who helped her integrate into the Vietnamese lifestyle and culture (Photo: Hanh Linh).

For over a year, Elizabeth has had a new joy by making videos on Tiktok. Initially, Elizabeth considered it a way to entertain and save family memories, but her videos have received love from the online community. Currently, Elizabeth's Tiktok channel has more than 225 thousand followers. Elizabeth has also started to have brands cooperate, she sells adult and children's clothes, bags, and backpacks via Tiktok.

Her videos on Tiktok have many followers. She also regularly sells products from this social network (Photo: Hanh Linh).

Elizabeth shared that she spends time calling her family in Ukraine every day. She hopes the conflict will end soon so she can return home to visit her family. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien, President of the Women's Union of Nga Tan Commune, said that Elizabeth is quite agile and quickly gets used to the lifestyle and culture of her husband's hometown.

Elizabeth at a performance in her husband's hometown (Photo: Hanh Linh).

In addition to housework, Elizabeth also actively participates in many local cultural and artistic activities. She is talented in dancing and playing sports . Currently, Elizabeth's eldest son studies at a local elementary school.

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