She lost her mother in an explosion at seven. Today his smile has become a symbol of hope.
There are wounds that time can attenuate, but that never completely disappears. Roman Oleksiv knows better than anyone.
In July 2022 he was in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, along with his mother. It had to be a day like a lot, with a simple medical visit. Then, in a few moments, everything changed.
A missile hit the area.
The explosion was devastating. His mother lost her life, while Roman was seriously injured. It brought extensive burns on much of the body, injuries caused by the shrapnel and fracture of an arm.
For weeks, doctors fought to save his life. He remained in very serious conditions and, once stabilized, he was transferred to Germany to face a long and complex path of care.
From that moment on, a battle far from the spotlight began.
More than thirty surgical interventions, months of rehabilitation, pain, continuous therapies and constant doubt about how much it could recover. No one could know if he would return to walk normally or use his hands as before.
Yet Roman never stopped looking forward.
With patience and determination he faced every new challenge, turning every conquest into a new starting point.
About a year later something seemed almost impossible.
He returned to school. He began to study the accordion. And he discovered a new passion: the ballroom.
Wearing special protective clothing for the skin, still in healing, he went up on a dance floor and performed a tango that touched the audience.
The scars on his body tell everything he had to face.
His smile, instead, tells what he chose to become.
Roman will not be able to erase the pain of that day, nor the loss of his mother. But its history shows that, even after a tragedy capable of changing forever a life, it is possible to find the strength to continue to learn, to cultivate new passions and to look to the future.
He did not choose what happened to him.
He chose, however, not to let it be that pain to define all the rest of his life.
And it's just this choice that keeps inspiring people all over the world.