She was so little and exhausted, that she forgot her last name. She lost a whole family; mother, grandmother, elder brother…
A special group of skinny girls found her – they were going from apartment to apartment during a terrible blockade winter looking for children whose parents had died or were dying…
This is how they discovered Lenochka and could evacuate her. She didn’t remember being carried across the ice with other children in a shaking truck, she didn’t remember getting to the orphanage; she was little. Like a skinny midget with a big head on a thin neck…
And she refused to eat anymore. This is what happens with dystrophy. She was laying in bed or sitting in a chair by the stove. She was getting hot. And she kept her mouth shut. They thought Lenochka would die. Many children died already during the evacuation; severe exhaustion and no strength to live and eat. And to play. And to breathe…
One-legged topper, war veteran uncle Kolja, about twenty years old, unpacked a doll from an old towel. Somehow he cut it, folded it, sewn it and it became an ugly doll. He drew the doll’s eyes and mouth with an indelible pencil. And a crooked nose.
He gave a doll to Lenochka and seriously said:
“You, Lenochka, cradle the doll. And teach her to eat well! You are now a mommy doll. Take good care of her. “
And this Lenochka suddenly grabbed a doll and pressed it together. She began to pet her with thin hands. At dinner, she fed the doll porridge and whispered something loving to her. And in the end, she ate porridge and a piece of bread herself…
And so Lenochka slept with the doll and warmed her by the stove, hugged her, and got upset because of her. Because of an ugly doll made of an old towel with painted eyes …
The girl has survived. Because she couldn’t die; she had to take care of the doll, you know?
HAVING SOMEONE TO TAKE CARE OF IS A HUGE LIFE FOR SOME PEOPLE.
For people like this girl was. Who later became a nurse and lived a long life. And her hands were always busy. And she had a heart full of love.