At the beginning of last year we had a new neighbor in our village – a man in his sixties. He had been a city guy since birth, had studied at a technical university and worked as an engineer. If his wife were alive, he would probably continue to live in the city, but the children evicted him from the apartment – they decided to sell it and divide it. The kids found a hut in our village for the pittance he got, and they took my grandfather out.
Our neighbors are all good, we helped the new tenant as much as we could. I, for example, dealt with the wood, the pension helped to transfer to our post office, and Sarah, who lived in the house opposite the man, shared with him potatoes, beets, canned food. I noticed that they were spending more time together, even last spring, but I was convinced it was because they were the same age, there was so much to discuss. And then I wasn’t the least bit surprised when Grandpa suddenly announced that he wanted to marry Sara, that he was in love. She adored him, too, and they were both thinking about getting married.
As far as I know, Sarah has children and grandchildren in neighboring villages, and Grandpa only has relatives in town, and none of their families supported this spontaneous decision to get married. The villagers have their own prejudices about Sarah’s age, no reason to desecrate her ex-husband’s memory and remarry, and the city folks think Sarah wants to get to Grandpa’s apartment so badly…
The elderly did not listen to the children, organized their own wedding. We all set a table in the village, took them for a day by the river, signed their names. They live at Sara’s now, but Grandpa’s not going to sell his house. He wants to leave it to the children. They haven’t thought about him for a minute, and he’s thinking about their inheritance. And Grandma Sara is the same way – everything is the best for the children, and it’s as if she’s putting herself on the back burner.
It pains me to see them try, but they’re afraid to tell their families about the wedding. Aren’t they doing it for themselves? Then what does it matter what the children say? What’s done is done, now we can just accept it and be happy that people are in love again at an old age and feel needed.
