This is a story from the life of my grandmother Nadezhda Filippovna. Her childhood and adolescence were spent in the pre-war years in a village near Rostov-on-Don, while her youth fell on the war and the post-war period, when she was forced to move from place to place with two children in the southern regions of the USSR.
At the age of 17, Nadezhda entered the flight school and there she met Alexei, who became her first husband. He was working as a test pilot at the time. They got married, and soon they had a son. And then one day after the exercises, one wise guy decided to joke. He ran up to Nadezhda and said:
- Yours just crashed during a training exercise!
From the stress, she immediately started having contractions. Her husband came running, calmed her down, but only the birth could no longer be stopped. This is how seven-month-old Boris was born. He was small, weak. The doctors said: "He will not survive." However, my future grandmother did not give up: she nursed him, warmed him in cotton wool by the stove, and when Boris could not suck, she fed him from a pipette. Everything worked out. The doctors' predictions did not come true. Boris survived.
Then another son was born to Nadezhda and Alexei - Valera. This one, unlike Boris, turned out to be a very strong kid. He grew up cheerful, loved to make everyone laugh and entertain, knew many songs and poems beyond his years. Valera deftly climbed fences and trees, ran faster than all the boys. And suddenly one day in the village some grandmother comes up to Valera and, looking into his eyes, says:
- Yes, his eyes are empty. He is not a tenant!
Nadezhda then became very angry and did not believe this nonsense. If the weak Boris survived, despite the doctors' predictions, then the strong man Valerka is definitely not in danger!
In 1941, Nadezhda decided to leave with her children for the summer to her mother in the village of Kagalnik.
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- Take with you all the valuables, and do not forget warm things, - advised Alexey.
He seemed to feel that they would never return home. However, Nadezhda did not obey him.
“We're not going forever,” she replied. - And why do we need warm clothes. We're in the south!
The Great Patriotic War began that summer. Her husband's premonitions were confirmed - they never returned home. Nadezhda and her children ended up in occupation and was forced to flee from the Germans. I had to go on foot in the cold and dampness. That's where they need warm clothes!
On the way, they almost died - they were bombed. In such conditions, Valerik fell ill. But the world is not without good people. They, dirty and hungry, were taken in by a woman. Yes, only she lived in terrible conditions.
Especially the children in her squalid home were annoyed by bedbugs. The legs of the crib were put in the water, but this did not help either. Bedbugs along the wall climbed to the ceiling, and then fell from there directly into the crib. In these conditions, Valera became completely ill. Nadezhda could not find a doctor for a long time. She had to go to Azov together with her son on the rebar.
A doctor was found there. After examining Valera, he made a terrible diagnosis - diphtheria. For the treatment, a special serum was needed, but it was not in the occupied city. On the way home, five-year-old Valerik wanted to eat, ate cookies, drank milk and died right in his mother's arms.
Nadezhda's hair fell out in bunches from grief. And only then did she remember about the terrible prophetic words of a rural old woman: "He is not a tenant!"
Marina Smetanina, Moscow