Against the backdrop of the spring sky, heavy clouds were gathering. Vitalina, quietly creaking the old rusted gate, entered the village cemetery. Firmly holding a small bouquet of snowdrops in her hands blue from the cold, she hurried noticeably, passing row after row of gloomy graves with wooden, iron, and marble crosses. Finally, she stopped. From the marble slab, a beautiful young woman smiled at her.
It seemed that even on this cold slab, her eyes were filled with warmth, and her smile radiated joy and tenderness.
– Hello, Mommy! – said Vitalina and bent down to kiss the woman on her beautiful high forehead. – I miss you so much! I’ve already come to terms with the fact that you’re gone. But I miss your smile so badly. It’s so good that we can be together again.
With fragile hands, Vitalina hugged the marble slab, pressed herself against her mother’s cold photo. Bitter tears dropped one after another from her eyes onto the white snowdrops. For some reason, she immediately remembered how in childhood she would sit on her mother’s lap and caress her for a long, long time. How long ago that was! Happy and carefree childhood flashed by like a short dream. Far in the past were the days when she had both a mom and a dad, and lots of beautiful toys. Or did it even happen?
Vitalina remembers more how she and her mom lived just the two of them, barely making ends meet. Her mother worked hard so that the girl would have everything necessary, like other children. And her father somehow imperceptibly disappeared from their lives. Vitalina often asked where their dad was, but in response, she would only gently press her daughter to her chest. Back then, she understood very little about all the quirks of life. But when she grew up, she understood all its complexities and unpredictabilities.
They lived together in a cold school dormitory. Mom worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature. She approached her work conscientiously, so everyone at school and in the village loved and respected her, except for her former mother-in-law. She could never forgive the fact that the orphan had “ruined” the life of her wealthy son. She did not acknowledge either the daughter-in-law or the granddaughter. Vitalina’s mother responded to all the taunts with sincere love. And, despite the fact that her ex-husband had sisters, she later cared for her mortally ill mother-in-law. How much endurance and patience it took, but Vitalina does not remember her kind mother ever complaining about anything.
After her grandmother’s death, her grandfather, who supported his daughter-in-law, took Vitalina and her mom to live with him. Their material life improved a bit because now grandfather was helping. He loved his granddaughter and daughter-in-law, and reproached his son for destroying the family happiness with his own hands. But there was no way back. Victor had a new wife and two children.
Only occasionally did he visit his father, and there he would meet his first wife and daughter. These meetings were infrequent, but Vitalina remembers how in those moments, mom seemed to come alive, her face glowing with happiness. But father either did not notice it or did not want to notice, quickly gathered himself and left back. And mother became again as she was before, sad and pensive. Vitalina understood that mother still loved father. When she tried to talk to her about it, mother always answered:
– Vitalina, you are my greatest happiness, and I don’t need anyone else.
But she so wanted her mom to be happy, for her to love and be loved too. Mom was a beautiful woman, and many men wanted to tie their lives with her, but she refused everyone, remaining faithful to her first and only love. And she gave her unspent love to her daughter. Days passed after days, adding up into years.
Imperceptibly, little Vitusia, as mom often called her, became a beautiful young woman. Before she could blink, nine years of school had flown by, and soon her first prom in life would take place.
– Mom, can I invite Dad to my graduation? – Vitalina asked her mother timidly. She was always afraid to hurt her with a careless mention of father.
– Of course, my dear, I have nothing against it, – mother answered meekly, but observant Vitalina noticed how sparks of joy lit up in her eyes. She hadn’t seen her husband in so long. And she was already imagining how she would walk out the school doors with her head held high, arm in arm with her beautiful daughter.
But that day when mom and dad were supposed to be together at her first celebration never came in Vitalina’s life. On the eve of the prom evening, mother went to school to check how the preparations for the holiday were going. And they brought her home already dead. Witnesses said that suddenly Vitalina’s mom felt bad, she lost consciousness, and then her big and loving maternal heart stopped beating.
The funeral passed like in a dream. Before Vitalina’s eyes floated, as if in a fog, tearful classmates in mourning attire, the familiar and yet unfamiliar figure of father, whom she saw already at mother’s coffin, the calloused hardworking hands of grandfather, which pressed her to himself and trembled finely. And mom, who seemed to have fallen asleep and through sleep gently smiled with slightly parted lips. And Vitalina also remembered the cold hands that lay in a small mound on her chest. Red, white, pink, orange flowers covered the coffin. And probably in the whole world there was no person who could fully understand what was happening in the soul of the poor girl at that time.
Is there such a weight with which one could weigh her grief? Is there such a measure with which one could measure the amount of tears shed? And where to find an explanation for what helped the girl not to break, but to gather all her willpower into a fist and live on.
Mother was gone, father returned to his family, grandfather became withdrawn and even more silent. Where to seek support and help? Only hope in God remained. After all, He always intercedes for widows and orphans.
With God’s help, Vitalina finished school, entered a pedagogical university and, like her mom, chose the philological faculty. God took care that she would not be lonely and sent her a wonderful husband. Now the two of them rejoice in their little miracle – their daughter Olivia. It’s a pity that grandfather could no longer see his great-granddaughter.
The wind drove shaggy clouds across the sky, and Vitalina stood, hugging the cold slab of the monument. Indulging in painful memories, she lost track of time.
– There you are, my dear, – Alex stroked her hair and pressed her to himself. – I was already worried where you’d disappeared to.
In the embrace of her beloved man, she immediately felt good and cozy. She pressed herself once more to mom’s face on the cold marble, brushed away an uninvited tear:
– Goodbye, Mommy! I’ll come to you again. I love you so much!
In a glass with clear water, transparent snowdrops swayed from the wind, and along the cemetery path, tenderly pressed against each other, walked two people. After them, from the marble slab smiled a beautiful woman, whose name is mother.
0 comments