CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Amid a stream of refugees fleeing Ukraine, Alex Hemeryckx seemed to be going in the wrong direction as he drove toward the country.
But the owner of Brussels Café in Chambersburg was on a mission to rescue his mother-in-law from Odessa.
He began the journey last Friday, flying to his hometown of Brussels, Belgium, then driving 800 miles to the Ukrainian border in Poland. From there he was able to assist his wife’s mother cross the border checkpoint.
According to a Facebook post he published, his mother-in-law had to take a 22-hour train to the far-west city of Lviv and then walk miles just to get to the border checkpoint, carrying only a backpack and her cat.
Hemeryckx and his mother-in-law are now safe in Brussels, busy trying to fill out paperwork to fly back to the U.S.
Meanwhile his customers back at Brussels Café are commending his bravery.
“The crisis is real, it’s earnest,” said regular customer Michael Rossman. “We must all respect anyone who takes such an effort to resolve a problem as complex and detailed as this. We hope he comes back safe and the family is together again.”
Hemeryckx’s journey serves as a reminder that the Ukrainian refugee crisis may be physically far away, but still hits close to home.
“The community of Chambersburg is actually much more diverse than I feel like a lot of people understand or recognize,” said Brussels Café manager Katie Piper. “I didn’t even realize it until I met Alex and his wife Ina. There’s a huge Ukrainian and Russian population here that I was fully unaware of.”
Hemeryckx hopes to return to Chambersburg next week.