In 1991 I was 19 years old, but I was already married and preparing to become a mother. In the hospital I met a woman named Valentina.
Valentina was 20 years older than me, she had already given birth and now she was telling us young people what and how. One of the mothers once asked why Vali had such a late birth, and she told us her amazing story. At that time she had three children: two daughters and a son. The eldest daughter is 17 years old. When Valentina found out that she had become pregnant with her fourth child, she immediately decided to have an abortion: the age, as it seemed to her, was already inappropriate, and it was becoming more and more difficult to raise children for money.
She, as expected, passed all the necessary tests and the next day had to go to the hospital to terminate the pregnancy. I went to bed early so as not to be late to the doctor in the morning. But closer to dawn, she woke up from someone's voice, opened her eyes and saw her late grandmother in the room. She stood and threatened Valentina with a finger:
- What are you thinking? Do not dare! Or everyone will feel bad!
Valentina froze on the bed, closed her eyes, and when she opened it, there was no one in the room. All this amazed her so much that she nevertheless decided to give birth to her fourth baby.
We, young people, were surprised to hear this story.
Several days passed, we were all discharged from the hospital, and we went home. I completely forgot about Valentine.
I remembered about her a year and a half ago, when I was going to go to rest in a sanatorium, and my youngest daughter presented a not too pleasant surprise, announcing that she was expecting a child.
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I was just stunned by this news. Of course, she began to tell her daughter that it was too early to think about children, first she had to finish her studies at the university, and the guy from whom she became pregnant had a fight with her and left for another city to work. How will a child be without a father?
The night after this conversation turned out to be very difficult for me, I fell asleep only towards morning. And I had a dream about my late grandfather. He told me:
- Take everything as it is, do not change anything, everything will be fine.
Of course, I got up in the morning broken, and even the words of my grandfather are constantly spinning in my head. My husband somehow calmed me down and took me to the station. I sat in the waiting room while it was time before the train, and suddenly I noticed an elderly woman who was sitting opposite me. I looked and wondered where I could see her. This woman also looked at me and was the first to dare to approach. As soon as she spoke, I immediately remembered her - this is Valentine, we were together in the hospital!
I began to ask her about life, about children. And Valentina told me that the children live well, the daughters have successfully married, the son has married and the grandchildren are already adults. But only the youngest invited her to live with him - the one whom she gave birth at the request of her late grandmother. He built two houses - for himself and for her - in the same yard. So they live. And if it were not for the youngest, she would grow old alone.
Soon they announced they would board the train, and I said goodbye to Valentina. I sat and recalled her story in the hospital. This is how everything turned out in life - the child, who seemed superfluous and might not have been born at all, became the dearest and closest to the mother. I sat for some time, thought, unable to bear it, left the waiting room and went home. She calmed her daughter down, talked to her kindly and judiciously. A few months later, a beloved granddaughter appeared.
Now the daughter is doing well - her boyfriend, having learned that she was expecting a child, immediately returned from another city, and they got married. And the study from her daughter did not go anywhere - it was transferred to correspondence.
Victoria DRUZHINA, Volgograd