It’s been a tradition that up until the age of 38 our mother and father couldn’t have children at all. Doctors were throwing up their hands and didn’t know what the problem was. And at some point my mom even gave up, put her hands down and accepted her fate as childless. My father did not care much about it. He kept saying, “Lida, don’t be angry, it’s no big deal – we’ll live for ourselves. Apparently, he didn’t really need kids either.
Already when our mother was deprived of all hopes, one holy day she asked God to give her at least one child. And whether it was God’s will or a coincidence, I was born. My mother’s happiness knew no bounds. But even then my father was already rude to her and freaked out when I cried at night. A year later my two twin brothers were born. Mom was already praising God at the top of her voice. After all, he had finally made her the happiest person she could be: a mother. And what about my father? Children, as you have already realized, he did not need. He decided to run a scam.
Took permission from my mom to sell the apartment. They say they have a lot of children – they need a big one. They would sell this one and buy a bigger one, and take a part of it on credit. My mother believed him. But as soon as my father got the money, he ran away. We still don’t know where he is. That’s how he left a mother of three on the street. Where was mom supposed to go then? She went to live with her family. So we all lived together – the four of us and Grandma and Grandpa in two rooms. Mom had lost all faith in relationships and men back then. And she had to work very hard. To feed and clothe three children was no joke.
In general, that was how we lived. A couple of years later my grandmother passed away, and then my grandfather too. There was more space, of course, but still. One day my mom went with us to the park to play there. There was a playground there, and it was summer, so we didn’t have to sit at home. One day a man of her age approached her. He started trying to get acquainted, but my mom kept refusing. We went to that park many times and once again my mother gave up, she gave him her number and they started to mingle and went on a date.
Two months later we went to live in Grisha’s big three-room apartment. He became our stepfather. To say that from that moment our childhood became incredibly happy, to say nothing. Grisha replaced our father – together he rejoiced over our victories and cried over our failures. We are now adults with brothers, we call Grisha Daddy. So not always a woman with children is a burden. There is always an opportunity to be happy. My father ran away from my mother and me, striving to make us happy, and my stepfather, like a real man, took and made us happy.
