Liana Rohozhyna and her son, Misha Rohozhyn, a 19-year-old who has Down Syndrome had a long and hard journey ahead but Misha wouldn’t understand why. The invading Russian troops had mom Liana desperate to convince her non-verbal son to move. So she convinced him that they were traveling to meet his hero, wrestler John Cena.
She would repeat that lie at every new location, not knowing what would happen next.
“Misha is an example for moving toward your dream by believing in it,” Rohozhyna said.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the family’s journey — which crossed several international borders — included walking through minefields and encounters with Russian occupation forces.
And Cena, upon reading about Misha’s story, traveled to Amsterdam and met the teen there.
“When I read about Misha’s story, it reached out to me,” Cena explained. “Not just Misha’s story, but the story of Misha’s mom as well. Having three days off from work right at the time when I read this story — and being an hour away by air — it turned immediately into ‘we’re going.’ And that means spending an afternoon building blocks and eating cake.”
“That’s a — that’s a special afternoon when it comes to the new friends I was able to make,” he added.
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Misha, a non-verbal teen with Down’s Syndrome, didn’t understand why his family had to flee Mariupol this year.
To placate him, his mother told him they were travelling to meet John Cena.
Cena heard… and went to Amsterdam to oblige.
Just brilliant. pic.twitter.com/vix2OhkXZs
— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) June 11, 2022
Cena gave Misha a hat and t-shirt featuring his WWE mantras and the two ate a Ukrainian honey cake, according to Fox News.
“If I have cake, will Misha have cake with me?” Cena asked the family through a translator, the WSJ reported. Misha excitedly accepted.
Seeing his idol was the first time Misha smiled since the war began, Rohozhyna told the outlet.
She also said Misha’s room in their Ukrainian home was covered in Cena’s wrestling posters.
That home, however, became the target of Russian mortar fire on February 24, the first day of the Ukrainian-Russian war, and the two were forced to flee. They arrived at a shelter but after it lost electricity, they were again forced to leave, the WSJ reported.