Grandma, Grandma, can’t you really say fu-fu and spit over your left shoulder?
— You can’t, my dear, it’s all pagan superstitions!
— Heard, heard what Grandma said! Arishka, armed with her grandmother’s expert opinion, ran to her brothers and sister to continue a cheerful argument on what should be done to fulfill her wish.
Baba Tanya had four grandchildren: the oldest is a thorough Alyoshka, the second behind him is to rip off Alyonk’s head, then the tender and vulnerable Arishka and the youngest is a very friendly and mobile Sashak.
All the grandchildren were from different children. Baba Tanya had five, three daughters and two sons. Only one of the sons did not have blood children, he came together with a woman and raised her child. The boy was already an adult and rarely came to the woman Tanya, although every time she invited him to visit her.
Baba Tanya loved all her grandchildren very much. Despite the difficult life, and on Grandma Tan, in addition to work, there was a grandfather, a house, a house and a garden, she at every opportunity asked her children to bring her grandchildren “for the night.”
There were days when all the grandchildren at the same time with their parents came to Baba Tanya. It was a celebration for everyone. All together set the table, fryed potatoes with meat, cut lard, get all sorts of pickles. Later, the parents left, and the “gang”, as the grandmother lovingly called her grandchildren, went to bed.
In the morning, Baba Tanya got up “a little early”, as she said, at 4 a.m., together with her grandfather, they fed the cattle, cleaned the shed. Then Baba Tanya went to mix pancake dough.
When the grandchildren woke up, in the kitchen they were already waiting for a mountain of fragrant fried pancakes, thin, thin, almost lace. For pancakes, my grandmother took a jar of raspberry jam from the cellar. Nothing tasted better than this food.
By lunch, the grandmother cooked a whole pan of chicken broth from domestic chicken, in parallel rubbed homemade noodles.
While the soup was being prepared, she asked the kid to “go for bread”, while she “accidentally” gave the day so that all four still had enough for a serving of filling.
When the soup was ready, the grandmother poured it into enameled cups, put a piece of boiled chicken there, cut soft bread and planted it to feed the children.
By the evening, parents came and took the children home, but even then the grandmother managed to beg one of the four parents to cry out for another night.
Most of all, she loved when Arishka stayed. The girl was a late child with the eldest daughter and was very ill. Baba Tanya always tried to fatten Arishka. She believed that the girl from running in the fresh air will be better to «grow» appetite and asked her daughter as often as possible to leave her granddaughter.
Arishka also loved to visit Tani’s grandmother. When my grandmother was busy, she would come to Arishka’s room and tell her magical bedtime stories. In these fairy tales, the main role was always the princess, who in character and even outwardly according to the description of her grandmother was very similar to Arishka herself. The princess in her grandmother’s fairy tales learned to defend her opinion, be friends, be honest, honor elders and even become tempered. These instructive stories about the princess was very much liked by Arishka, she represented herself as a princess.
Once Baba Tanya told another story about the princess, in which her success in her studies attracted the attention of the handsome prince and years later he invited her to become his wife.
“Grandma, if I don’t succeed, what should I do?”
— You are golden, everything will work out for you, just believe in yourself! — patted her on the head and kissed her.
A few years later, my grandfather was gone. For a while, Baba Tanya kept herself awake, continuing to take care of everyone but herself.
In the daily chores and worries, Baba Tanya did not have time to notice how her grandchildren grew up. Alyoshka has already graduated from the institute, Alenka studied in the penultimate course, Arishka in the first, and Sashak graduated from the 11th grade. Less and less they all came together to Grandma, and every day my grandmother became weaker. The middle daughter of the grandmother moved to the parental home with Alenka to be near and take care of the grandmother Tanya.
One day Arishka came to visit her grandmother. There was no one in the house except Baba Tanya. Her grandmother asked Arishka to help her out on the porch to get some fresh air. Arishka took her grandmother out, put up a chair and helped her sit down. Baba Tanya sat down, thoughtfully looked up at the sky, smiled at her thoughts and suddenly began to smooth her gray disobedient strands with her hand.
“Grandma, are you smiling and putting on a marathon?”
“I think your grandfather looked at me, he looks at me!” said Tanya.
A few days later, Baba Tanya was gone. The whole family was instantly orphaned. Baba Tanya quietly united all relatives around her, was the heart of the family. While she was alive, her sons and daughters felt like children, because they had a mother. The family was grieving the pain of the loss of Baba Tanya. Arishka was especially hard. Communication with her grandmother always gave her strength and confidence.
As time passed, Arishka graduated from the institute, got a job, got married, and her children appeared.
There were different situations in her life, sometimes it seemed that there was a complete dead end ahead and Arina would definitely not cope. At these moments she tried to go outside, lifted her head and looked up at the sky. It seemed to her that through the clouds the woman Tanya was looking at her and, as a child, calming her, said to little Arina: “My you are golden, you will succeed, only believe in yourself.” After that, all the problems were solved by some miracle, the girl found a way out of the most difficult situations. Arishka looked up at the sky again and whispered with one mouth: «Thank you, ba!»
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Orthodox stories from life
