To be honest, I seldom meet my grandparents, but if I have free time I spend it with my grandmother in the kitchen with cup of tea and tasty pancakes. When I come to her, she likes to tell me about her childhood and always wants to explain to me, that I’m lucky, because I live in 21 century, while she lived in a poor family with 3 brothers and 4 sisters. She was the eldest child in her family (10 years). My grandma’s mother was working 18 hours a day, because grandmother’s father died on the front. While her mother was working, she was cooking, bathing sisters and brothers, made clothes for them. She did not even have time to go to school. Also she told me that there was only one pair of shoes, and sometimes she walked by bare foot on ice and snow. There was little money in the family, so they spent them only on bread, sugar and salt. Also, they had their own cow and garden with vegetables and fruits. As at that time there was lack of the food in shops, grandma and her family ate only that food which was grown in their garden.
When her brothers and sisters grew up, she had the opportunity to go to school. By the way to school, near railway station, she found 100 rouble, at that time it was 4 months salary. When she came home, she showed her findings to her mother. Grandmother’s mother immediately took her money and didn’t give any copeck to her children, because she needed to buy things for her family. After the World War II my grand mother began to work as a nurse.
Nowadays my grandmother has only one sister alive. She didn’t tell me, what had happened to all her brothers and sisters and I didn’t want to ask, because I saw how difficult it was for her to remember that period of time. Until this time, my grandma’s sister sends to her message of thanks that she was like a mother, babysitter and leader for her and all her brothers and sisters.
To sum up, I want to say that each generation has their problems, our grandmothers and grandfathers go through the World War, it was difficult for them, and I understand what act they done for us!
