Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
. . .
O
NLY LATER, WHEN
Sergei translates for me, do I learn the stories.
Zoya Dorodova, seventy-two, lost her son to war—he died fighting for the Soviets
in Afghanistan—and her husband in an accident that is all too common in Russia. “He
drowned in the river. He was coming home from work. Maybe he was drunk. It was Octo-
ber, and the ice was thin. He walked straight over it and drowned. We looked for his body
for a week until it was found down the river.”
Natalia Pugachyoya, at seventy-seven the oldest and tiniest in this group, is the rare
babushka with a living husband. “Soon it will be fifty-seven years together.” Sergei asks
if their marriage is happy. “You know, it's a husband and a wife. Things happen. We have
been together a long time.”
Ekaterina Shkliayeva says she was married for six years. “My husband got sick. He had
epilepsy. It happened during the night. He just couldn't breathe. He was sleeping, didn't
have enough air. He was lying on the pillow. I didn't notice until the morning because I was
sleeping in another room, with our children.”
Sergei asks exactly what I would have asked—if these experiences had formed the char-
acters of these women.
“We work. We work the land,” Galina says. “We work our vegetable gardens, so they
are not neglected.”
“Galina,” Sergei says, “can you tell me a story that will help me understand your char-
acter?”
“I can't. I'll start crying.”
Sergei is respectful, not pushing, talking to the other women. Then at one point, Galina
turns to Sergei.
“Would you like to hear my story?”
Sergei says yes.
“My father went to the army when I was three. Thank God he wasn't killed. He was
wounded twice but returned home alive and lived to sixty-four. He got sick with tubercu-
losis. I was the oldest of six children. We sawed and chopped firewood. We took care of
the vegetable garden and milked cows. I went to school and became a kindergarten teacher
and got married to a Russian guy. We had a baby. And somehow life changed. He started
drinking.”
Looking back at the transcript later, I believe this is when Galina is taking pauses and
fighting tears.
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