My Grandma
My Grandma’s name was Anna and she was an incredible woman!
This is my favorite memory when I was a child - I loved to eat her cooking. Looking back into those days I am sure that it was very simple, traditional Russian food, which came from the ancient times. But for a child of five or four years old, it was heavenly tasty.
I used to sleep with her in one bed. For Americans who have rooms for every family member, this fact sounds very strange, but for us it was very normal and pleasant to lean to your granny during the night, and she kept you covered with a heavy blanket.
I was not a healthy child and I had a lot of problems with my ears. Grandma cured them with herbs and a magic blue lamp. This lamp was used to warm up the area around the ears, to the best I can recall. I don’t remember the purpose, I remember the process. It was a dark room filled with a blue light. I am lying under the blanket, Grandma is holding this lamp above my ear, and I am not allowed to move.
My first stitches in sewing and knitting was under her supervision as well. I was always given little pieces of fabrics to play with my dolls. Once, when I was four or five years old, I decided to sew a dress for a doll, I took a sewing needle and a thread and made something. All the family: Grandma, Aunt, Mom were watching what I was doing, but didn’t interfere. When the first dress was sewn, my Grandma took it and said, “Look, it will not work with stitches like that. Do you want me to show you the stitches that will work?” And she did. And since this time my dolls always had new dresses, and they were beautiful!
She was always amazed with my passion for reading. She called me a gold nugget, meaning that was something extraordinary in the family, like a gold nugget which is the mud and soil. I loved to come and to stay in her apartment while preparing for my exams. She made it incredible! First of all I had my own room, and could close the door to that room and do whatever I want (of course, most of the time I studied, but sometimes just laid down with an interesting book). Grandma did not allow making noises, cooked something special for me and always told me how incredible I was. My dear Grandma! This power of incredible love that she gave me lasted a long time!
Her own life was not easy at all. She was only 22 when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and the war started. For Russia it was the most horrible time, many of people died, a huge territory was devastated. And here she is, 22 years old, a very young girl. Her work during the war was to deliver the food supply to people who worked at a peat production field. She had a horse with a carriage and a pistol to protect her. Can you imagine this? It is war time and food has extremely high value. She was a young girl all by herself with her carriage and a horse, going through the woods to deliver food for the workers. She was brave, I guess.
When she passed away I felt like a big portion of my life was over. It was like a border line. Here she was, with her pies, songs and with wool spinning; and now I was all by myself - my childhood will never be back, only my memories.
This is my favorite memory when I was a child - I loved to eat her cooking. Looking back into those days I am sure that it was very simple, traditional Russian food, which came from the ancient times. But for a child of five or four years old, it was heavenly tasty.
I used to sleep with her in one bed. For Americans who have rooms for every family member, this fact sounds very strange, but for us it was very normal and pleasant to lean to your granny during the night, and she kept you covered with a heavy blanket.
I was not a healthy child and I had a lot of problems with my ears. Grandma cured them with herbs and a magic blue lamp. This lamp was used to warm up the area around the ears, to the best I can recall. I don’t remember the purpose, I remember the process. It was a dark room filled with a blue light. I am lying under the blanket, Grandma is holding this lamp above my ear, and I am not allowed to move.
My first stitches in sewing and knitting was under her supervision as well. I was always given little pieces of fabrics to play with my dolls. Once, when I was four or five years old, I decided to sew a dress for a doll, I took a sewing needle and a thread and made something. All the family: Grandma, Aunt, Mom were watching what I was doing, but didn’t interfere. When the first dress was sewn, my Grandma took it and said, “Look, it will not work with stitches like that. Do you want me to show you the stitches that will work?” And she did. And since this time my dolls always had new dresses, and they were beautiful!
She was always amazed with my passion for reading. She called me a gold nugget, meaning that was something extraordinary in the family, like a gold nugget which is the mud and soil. I loved to come and to stay in her apartment while preparing for my exams. She made it incredible! First of all I had my own room, and could close the door to that room and do whatever I want (of course, most of the time I studied, but sometimes just laid down with an interesting book). Grandma did not allow making noises, cooked something special for me and always told me how incredible I was. My dear Grandma! This power of incredible love that she gave me lasted a long time!
Her own life was not easy at all. She was only 22 when Hitler attacked the Soviet Union and the war started. For Russia it was the most horrible time, many of people died, a huge territory was devastated. And here she is, 22 years old, a very young girl. Her work during the war was to deliver the food supply to people who worked at a peat production field. She had a horse with a carriage and a pistol to protect her. Can you imagine this? It is war time and food has extremely high value. She was a young girl all by herself with her carriage and a horse, going through the woods to deliver food for the workers. She was brave, I guess.
When she passed away I felt like a big portion of my life was over. It was like a border line. Here she was, with her pies, songs and with wool spinning; and now I was all by myself - my childhood will never be back, only my memories.