Translated by Kirill Bobrovsky. Published in English for the first time CHAPTER 2. "Standards" breaking (without mom) I don't want to remember anything on pages of even a very frank book in order to look more aesthetic and more significant ... Mom offered to register disability and I refused. Meanwhile, I had to look for some work in Rostov and to search for housing for the next year which was necessary till Sasha's graduation. A local newspaper office was visited: there was a vacancy in the editorial department and the hostel was not promised...

When my 91-year-old mother, Elia, moved in with me, I thought I was doing her a service. In fact, it was the other way around. You see, mom was having issues with memory loss and accepting her age. She looked defeated. I tried to make her as comfortable as possible, but when I was at my easel, painting, I would peek over and see her just "there." She'd be staring at nothing in particular. I'd watch her slowly climb the stairs, and she wasn't the mom I grew up with. I saw, instead, a frail, tiny, old woman...