ABERDEEN, S.D.(Aberdeen American News)- Tetiana Althoff was on the phone with family members when she heard the sirens.

It was 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 24 in west-central Ukraine where her family lives. Russia had invaded a few hours earlier, at 4 a.m.

Althoff has moved to northeastern South Dakota since 2009 after graduating from a law school in Ukraine. She currently works as a realtor for RE/MAX in Aberdeen. She’s kept in touch with her family through the years and has been talking to her family every day since the invasion. The sirens served as a way to warn people in her family’s town that air strikes were possibly imminent and that they should seek shelter.

Althoff is 5,000 miles away from her family and said it’s difficult to deal with the fact that there is nothing she can do from so far away. One of the hardest things is not knowing what’s next or if she will ever speak to them again.

Althoff wants children one day, and hopes that her mother will be able to be present in her children’s lives.

Read the full story at www.aberdeennews.com.