As a plane flew overhead, Galina Matsiakh saw two small objects fall from the aircraft. They were bombs, targeting the neighborhood where she and her 5-year-old daughter were living.

The explosives struck two doors down, destroying a neighbor’s home and shattering every window in Matsiakh’s temporary residence. 

“My child asked me, ‘Mom, will we die?’” Matsiakh recalled. “I said no, and the next day we headed for Poland.”

The single mother and her daughter, Daria, had already fled from their home in Kyiv. Matsiakh was a hairdresser for VIPs in the Ukrainian capital, including former President Petro Poroshenko. Actors, businesspeople and politicians enjoyed her styles and personal care.

But amid the chaos of last year’s Russian invasion, she and Daria sought refuge in a small town near the Ukrainian border. When their safe house there was damaged, they walked to Poland to find shelter.

Much for the same reasons, Olena Kostiushko had also fled to Poland with her two children, Danylo, 15, and Ruslana, 5. The two seemingly stranded mothers didn’t know each other, but they had something in common: Both were family friends with Nick Piazza.

The owner of the Sleeping Giant Ski Area east of Yellowstone National Park and of major investments in Ukraine, Piazza has split time between Cody and Kyiv for nearly 20 years. It was in Ukraine that he married his wife, Yulia. The couple have two children. However, the family was forced into an extended stay in the U.S. by the COVID-19 pandemic. Then Russia attacked.

The couple did everything they could to help family, friends and employees back in Ukraine. As the war got underway, they even funded local volunteers willing to combat invading Russian troops.

The Piazzas also made Matsiakh and Kostiushko an offer they couldn’t refuse: the means to relocate to Cody and to safety.

Starting over

The women initially worked at Sleeping Giant while they navigated the process of making Cody their home, but, as they had in Ukraine, they have since started their own businesses.

Kostiushko was previously a chemist. She studied at Ukraine’s National University before going to work for large pharmaceutical companies. While working for the companies, she suffered an injury and couldn’t find a medicinal cure, despite it being her specialty, she said.

Kostiushko started looking into holistic methods of healing and eventually found the benefits of craniosacral massage. After going through several treatments, she found her pain dissipating.

“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can do it. I can walk! I can move my legs!’” she said of her recovery.

Craniosacral therapy is “a gentle, hands-on technique that uses a light touch to examine membranes and movement of the fluids in and around the central nervous system,” Cleveland Clinic explains; by relieving tension in that system, the treatment “promotes a feeling of well-being by eliminating pain and boosting health and immunity.”

Kostiushko was so taken with the benefits of the therapy that she began intensive studies. But then Russia attacked Ukraine and, like Matsiakh, she wanted more than anything to get her children to safety.

Neither woman, nor their children, had spoken a word of English prior to getting on the plane and heading to Wyoming. Coming to a small town in the middle of the Rocky Mountains — which they didn’t know outside of conversations with Piazza — was somewhat nerve-racking.

They both spoke several languages, including Russian, Polish and Ukrainian, and weren’t afraid to tackle another. Not quite a year later, they now speak enough English to converse with community members — and their customers.

Matsiakh owns WYO Stylez salon on Cody’s Sheridan Avenue; Kostiushko assists customers in need of massage therapy at the salon and at a downtown Powell office.

The two women try not to speak Ukrainian together, opting instead to practice their new language skills every chance they get. Their children are in school, their businesses are growing and they are working hard to fit in with their new neighbors.

Bringing Ukrainians to safety

Kostiushko and Matsiakh are among about 20 Ukrainian families currently being sponsored by the Piazzas in the U.S., including five children with two more on the way.

Nick Piazza said he and his wife “have been extremely impressed with the progress they have made.”

He and Yulia visited Kyiv late last month.

“I have lived in Kyiv longer than any other city in my life. Being there for almost [20 years during Ukraine’s] independence, I always felt like we grew up together,” Piazza wrote in an impassioned post on social media. “From being a tough place to find a burger or use a credit card to having some of the best restaurants and nightlife in the world — she [Ukraine] changed so much. My forced exile due to COVID for most of 2020 only served as a reminder of how much our relationship means to me.”

While there, the couple witnessed Russian attacks on the city of more than a million, largely on civilian targets.

As an immigrant, Yulia has a different point of view about America’s place in the world.

“I want to make sure you understand how much people of Ukraine look up to America as a defender of democracy,” she told high school students in Cody in April. “Here, in Cody, I often hear people saying a lot of negative things about their own country, but please remember how lucky you are. You live in a free country that most of the world looks to for leadership.”

Making a home

When Matsiakh and Kostiushko first arrived in Cody, airplanes flying overhead triggered fear in their youngest children — recalling memories of the attacks on residential neighborhoods in Ukraine. But that soon passed and now they find comfort and support in their new community, schools and businesses.

“When we came, I didn’t have expectations,” Matsiakh said. “If you don’t have expectations, you don’t have disappointment.”

What both women found, however, was a caring community.

“It’s like one big family,” she said.

Both have been pleasantly surprised to find themselves welcome everywhere they travel.

“Everyone was really kind when we arrived. A lot of people help us — really help us,” Matsiakh said.

David Morris, a fellow massage therapist in Cody, helped Kostiushko when she first arrived by giving her space in his office to work. Morris was crucial in assisting her navigate applications, regulations and contracts — as well as learning English.

“He helped me overcome the language barrier and gave moral support,” she said. “This is invaluable help and I am infinitely grateful to him.”

Of course, the people they meet are curious, as their accents give the two women away. Everyone is interested in where they are from. Kostiushko answers, “The whole world is my home.”

She added, “Wherever my children, my heart and my mind are, is my home.”

Or, as the old saying goes: Home is where the heart is.