My great grandmother Alexandra did not know well how to
read and write and every evening she asked me to read her a newspaper or a book.
One time I told her, that one day I would write a book for her, and it would be
just about her. She was very happy about it, exited, and all she asked to write
only good things, positive, energetic, optimistic just like she was.
The biggest thing she did for me was introducing me to God, believing
in something good, kindness, love for people, the nature, ability to move on no
matter what. And she had hard life, Russian Social Revolution, two wars, poor
family, no education at all, living at the same village, working on the collective
farm for free and still she was one of the happiest women in the world. And she
had power to make happy not just her family, but people around her. All I
remember, we had a lot of visitors, old ladies, friends forever, young women
and men who used to work on the farm. She used to make traditional food, a lot
of herbal tea, give dry grass and flowers, asking to just boil it at home and
drink. Sometimes young men would sit in the living room on an old bench and
talk about their life, and she would listen for hours only feeding them and
saying “it's going to be fine”. One of those men got married and he drove his motorcycle
with his wife to our house asking my great grandmother to bless him… He was
very happy; they were talking loud, laughing, went to look at the river.
She talked a lot about God, Guardian Angel, made different
stories and at that time I was still small and I did not think much about it.
It was Soviet Union, religion was prohibited for more than sixty years and old people
were confused about their believe, especially from families who supported communism...
