The stories of old woman

by Polina Fedorenko (Ukraine)

Making a local connection Ukraine

I come to my friend to her hometown city - Odesa. We walked a lot, made some discoveries of new buildings or great places to make a picnic around the city. It felt very cozy to travel with her, just to find new insights about her life through all these streets and events that connects them with her. We were dead tired in the evening, and I had even thought about canceling meeting with one old woman - the friend of my friend, but something stopped me. The next day we knocked the door and came in. Our sleepiness was vanished by a dog, who barked happily and waved his tail. The old woman smiled and invite us to eat branch with her. The fridge surface was full of old photo cards and magnets from places her family visited. Cupboards were full of scratches; old wooden floor had been polished to the stage when it lost its shine. The smell of stories was in the air. “I live there for the whole life, - she said, - Walls of this city are whispering me my old romance stories. You know, in times far away from now we used to meet our sailors from the sea. It was usually end of the week, all women dressed up their Sunday best, kids were as beautiful as always, and we all together ambled through the main avenue. We saw how ship moored, how sailors one by one set foot on land and then the crowd began to laugh and cry. Everyone hugged each other, smiled; men asked if the women cooked their favorite dishes, kids begged for one more story about the sea. Not much time would pass and these men would go back to the sea, but then this fact didn't bother us at all. My mom was a young lady when the Nazis were in Odesa during the Second World War. The life was just going. She woke up every morning, took bus to her university, studied there and come back. Sometimes she passed some products from home to the one who lived in the center of the city. They had not much to eat, that’s why mom agreed to make so, even though the punishment could be unpredictable because of the Nazis regime. One day she took one package of food inside her bag, took a bus and placed on a sit near the window. Everything was like in other days, but then the bus stopped, the Nazis officer came, look through everyone in the bus and caught her look. He took her from the bus, asked to open her bag, examined it and told her to go. I think about her as a strong woman and Nazis were different as soldiers of the Red Army were. Once on one weekends my husband and me went to the monastery near the Romania. On the way back we decided to go shopping in one of the markets on the border. It is easy for us to go here and there to buy things cheaper or to sell something there on the other side. Just a normal practice.” She told us much more and I wonder how all her friendships were full of teacups, whisper about some important political changes in fear that someone would hear, delighted sunny days near the sea cost. I walked through the main street and imagined how my life would look like if I were born 60 year ago, how my life would turn around the ship that would bring my husband back home with the stories about sea adventures. Now I can do it all by myself, travel on my own, decide who will be my husband or wife some day and change the world with the social projects. The new sunny world with the freedom of speech has already come. How will you use it to make the world a better place?