Putin's Follies: Displaced Elderly Ukrainian Woman Receives Helping Hand From Americans

In this war-torn country where countless tears have been shed for grief, Nadezda Panasyk cried for joy.

"Thank you America," the elderly widow said again and again as she watched workmen deliver a new bed to her new apartment, which she shares with a new family and a new cat.

Five months ago, Panasyk, 75, was marooned in a battle zone in separatist-held Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. She was the last civilian living in a shell-pocked apartment building Russian-backed rebels were using as a command post in their fight with government forces at the Donetsk airport.

I met her there during an artillery exchange. She told me she had no family or friends to turn to, and she didn't want to leave behind her dear companion, a cat named Pushok (Fluffy). I offered to take her and Pushok to safety.

She was upset when she had to be separated from her cat because the shelter that took her in did not allow pets. When I wrote about her predicament, USA TODAY readers offered to donate money to find a home that would reunite Panasyk and Pushok.

I directed them to Polish Christian Ministries, which has a branch in Troy, Mich., and delivers aid to Bethlehem Pentecostal Church here, where Panasyk landed.

Donations and letters poured in from seniors, animal lovers, children and even prison inmates. Shayla Rogers, of Simpsonville, S.C., wrote that her children, ages 8 and 11, donated $6 and $5 from their allowance "to help this poor lady." Other donations were as large as $1,000, amounting to about $10,500 in total.

The funds were enough to buy a two-bedroom apartment and furniture for Panasyk and her caretakers, a woman and two young daughters who have become a surrogate family. Panasyk has gone from collecting apples from neighbors' yards for food and living alone in an unheated studio apartment to living with a loving family — and a new washing machine.

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