Anya immediately realized that her life would never be the same again. She sat down on the bed in the empty apartment, and sobbed.
Less than an hour has passed since she saw off her closest and dearest relatives at the airport – her mother, sister and brother.
Fate decreed that they had to go to Canada for permanent residence, and now Anya was left all alone. And what’s next? What will happen to her now?
No, she’s not alone. Anya repeated this to herself every time she started thinking about the current situation. She has a beloved son, and she needs to continue living, enjoying life for his sake, for his happiness.
Just at this moment of reflection, Andrew, a ten–month-old son, whom Anya doted on, came up to her. He barely uttered the word “mom”, because it was almost the only word that the baby pronounced well, and hugged his mom.
But how she wanted to go back to the past right now. How I wanted her dad to come into the room at that moment, and mom, as usual, called the children to eat. Anya herself would come running with her sister to set the table, and her brother would run around, interfering and teasing his sisters. But… dad died more than a year ago, and mom, along with Anya’s brother and sister, went to another country thousands of kilometers from home.
And then there are troubles in your personal life…
It took only 3 months after Anya left her husband. Mom agreed to register Anya and her Andryushka in her apartment, otherwise there will be trouble. It’s good that at least everything worked out here, otherwise they would have had nowhere to live.
– Mom, – Andrew spoke again, smiling sweetly and looking straight into Mom’s eyes. Anya smiled back, got out of bed and wiped her tears with the sleeve of her sweater.
– Yes, yes, honey, we’re going to eat now.
And so a new stage in the life of Anya and her son began. The very next day she took the baby to the nursery, and she went to work.
But, unfortunately, in life, not everything happens as planned, and she throws people various trials that sometimes seem unbearable.
Little Andrew began to get sick often (either his immunity was weak, or the nurses did not follow the children properly), and Anya had to take sick leave and stay at home with her son. Of course, this had a negative impact on career prospects, and there was simply not enough salary even for daily needs. At least her mother took care of Anya before leaving, buying potatoes in large quantities for the winter, as well as closing a lot of jars with cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables. It only remained to somehow stretch this provision until the end of winter, and then Anya hoped that Andryusha would be less ill, and would become more mature.
She had to give up buying special children’s food for a long time due to the fact that such food cost a lot of money, and began to accustom her son to ordinary food – soup with potatoes, boiled potatoes, etc. Anya herself often experienced a half-starved state, leaving the cooked food to Andryushka.
So day after day passed, and Anya was waiting for spring as a miracle!
But by the middle of winter, she realized that there were not enough provisions, there wasn’t much money either, and something had to be done. An interesting thought came to her mind: what if we take two lodgers-girls? They would pay money for housing, and Anya would use this money for its intended purpose. It is clear that you will not be able to accommodate four people in Khrushchev, but where to go?
So I decided. I found the lodgers pretty quickly. They were two young girls from the village, who also did not have a lot of money, but who came to the capital to study, and in the future were going to conquer this very capital. In other words, the girls were ambitious. They always paid on time, and sometimes they also shared with Anya those products that were brought from the village. In short, winter has passed, and spring has passed after it.
And everything kind of started to come back to normal. In the summer, Andrew was practically not ill, and Anya was able to fully go to work. In addition, she became very friendly with one of the lodgers, who stayed in the capital for the summer, and spent a lot of time with her, communicating on various topics.
And what about Andrey’s father? During all this time, he came to visit his son a couple of times, and even then, he did not bring any toys, food, or children’s things … nothing at all, he also refused to pay alimony, insisting that he receives little, and he himself does not have enough to live on. And if she, they say, wants to complain to someone, then officially he is not employed anywhere, and therefore bribes are smooth from him.
It was only many years later that Anya realized that in this way her ex-husband wanted to make her come back to him from despair.
Despite these troubles, life has become much easier. Then my mother also settled in Canada, and from time to time she sent parcels with things, or at least some money. Anya began to think more and more about moving to Canada. Well, what about it? Salaries are good there, there are close relatives, they will help for the first time. But how can this be done as quickly as possible, because the husband probably will not agree to give permission to take the child abroad?
After talking with him and his parents, Anya finally realized that it would not be possible to pull this off without delay. He was categorically against it, and his parents constantly repeated: – You can go wherever you want, but we won’t give Andrew away.
Anya was upset to the limit. And it would be fine if the husband often visited his son or gave him gifts, otherwise he would come once a month, and be healthy.
Anya began to seriously think about officially divorcing her husband, and after that to go to Canada with a child.
The process has started. The divorce took some time, but eventually took place. Now Anya was a free woman, and she could decide for herself where to take her son. Then something incredible happened.
The ex-husband, now apparently realizing that he was finally and irrevocably losing Anya, began to visit them with Andryushka more often. He even began to transfer small amounts to the card, and once offered to get back together. He said that he continues to love Anya, and constantly thinks about her.
Anya was confused. She couldn’t forget all the things he had done to her before, how she had survived that hard winter, barely making ends meet, and he hadn’t even come to visit them, and also refused to pay alimony.
One “beautiful” day, the ex-husband came home to Anya, fell on his knees, and begged to return to him. She thought for a long time, but then replied that they could get back together only on one condition – if they all went to live in Canada together.
And this was the next stage in Anya’s life. They signed again, began to live together, although mutual resentment still persisted, and it was difficult to return the old relationship. Although my husband promised to move to Canada, he delayed leaving for a long time. So another couple of years passed.
Nothing had changed in her husband’s character, and Anya tolerated him only because she hoped for an early move to another country.
Finally, that time has come. They packed up all their belongings and flew to Canada. And just before leaving, her husband kept trying to make Anya promise that she would not leave him in a new country. She had to make that promise.
So they moved to Canada. It seems to be together physically, but so far apart spiritually. So the next 25 years of living together passed, because Anya kept this promise all these years. Two more children were born in their family: a boy and a girl.
However, after 25 years, they still broke up.
The children have already grown up, studied at Canadian higher education institutions. However, they could not come to terms with the divorce of their parents. Stepan, the youngest son, even began to blame his mother for this divorce, not understanding how she could stop loving her father after living with him for so many years. And how could Anya explain to her children now that she had not loved their father for many, many years?
She never got married again. Although she was slim, pretty, and many men wanted to have a serious relationship with her. But Anya had already been burned once, and almost for the rest of her life, and now she planned to spend the rest of her life freely, devoting time to her children, and then to her grandchildren.
Looking back into the past, Anya wondered if she regretted such a life. The answer was “No” rather than “Yes”. Well, what about it? She herself coped with huge difficulties in her life, raised three children, and for a long time brought up her first-born Andryushka alone, surviving only with small earnings and help from lodgers.
Now it remains to properly educate grandchildren, teach them to love their parents, and also respect all women on earth, because it seems that the fate of a woman lies in this.
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