Читать книгу Mission 777 Possible - Марина Спроуз - Страница 38

The old woman lay in bed. She would rise and lower her frail body repeatedly. She was 96. Death still would not come. She rose again, and with anger, grinding her toothless mouth, she said, “Where is that death already… It’s just torment…” Then she would comb her remaining strands of hair and just sit, staring into space. Earlier, when she could still get up, Marianna saw her every day praying by the icons hanging in the kitchen. Great-grandmother Vera was illiterate and knew the prayers by heart, learned by ear. She whispered, looking at the icons of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. The icon of Jesus Christ was a paper picture glued to cardboard and hung on a nail on the wall by the refrigerator. Before praying, Great-grandmother would wash herself and only then approach the icons. She did not go to church, she just prayed. Her life was far from sweet. During Stalin’s time, her husband was taken by the “black raven” (secret police van), and he returned only ten years later, very ill and soon passed away. Great-grandmother Vera suffered all her life but survived and lived a long time.