Life is such that first our parents take care of us, and later we take care of them in their old age. Helping the elderly is not easy. However, sometimes it can turn out very unexpectedly. This is what happened with the heroes of our story, who took in an elderly aunt from the village.
Helping the Elderly After discussing it, Viktor and Oksana decided to bring Aunt Masha from the village. Oksana’s parents had passed away early, and she had no one closer than her aunt. The old lady could no longer live in the village by herself, as she had no strength left. So they decided to settle her in their apartment, since there was a spare room anyway. And how could they live knowing that the aunt was there alone?
After some persuasion, Aunt Masha came to live with them. She arrived with several bags of belongings and homemade gifts. She brought homemade preserves, dried herbs, and mushrooms. Oksana was amazed at how her picky children gobbled up the homemade jam. Aunt Masha A couple of years ago, Viktor and Oksana had taken out a mortgage on their apartment and since then had been working two jobs. They came home exhausted. Oksana almost never cooked herself, buying frozen foods. The couple had two children — Sasha and Anya. They were left to their own devices. They spent all their free time on their phones. But Aunt Masha immediately brought something special into their lives.
One weekend, Oksana woke up in the morning to an incredible smell from the kitchen. She went there. The table was already set with pancakes and an open jar of jam. Aunt Masha and the children were making dumplings. It had been a long time since she had seen so much enthusiasm in them. Little Anya exclaimed: “Mom, look, we’ll have homemade dumplings!”
Oksana felt such peace from this scene, it calmed her soul. Over time, she began to notice more often that the children spent time with their aunt, not on their phones. They were interested in listening to her stories. She even taught them interesting games. And they gladly helped their aunt cook. Oksana was pleased with such changes. A Hard Day One late night, Aunt Masha got up to drink some water. Going to the kitchen, she saw her niece quietly crying. She approached and hugged her, asking, “Daughter, what happened?” Not recovering, the woman told the old lady about all her worries. She talked about how terribly tired she was from working two jobs and not seeing the children. She wanted to spend more time with them. She talked about problems at work, about some complete lull in her relationship with her husband. It turned out to be a long story.
Aunt Masha listened to everything without unnecessary comments, making it clear that she was there. Oksana cried out, talked about everything that had accumulated. It was clear that it had become easier for her just from this. The grandmother stroked her niece’s hair and quietly said, “Don’t worry, dear, everything will be fine soon.” For some reason, Oksana believed her aunt. For the first time in a long time, she felt at peace. A New Life On a day off, Oksana woke up quite late. Yesterday she was tired at work and barely made it home. She went to the kitchen, brewed herself coffee, and leisurely drank it. Then she realized that the apartment was unusually quiet. After checking all the rooms, she realized that there was no one at home. This surprised her; she didn’t understand where everyone could have gone. A vague anxiety gripped her. She got ready and rushed outside, not knowing where to look for her family.
At the playground, she saw the children. They immediately ran to her, each explaining where dad and Grandma Masha were. A few minutes later, she saw them coming around the corner. She hurried to them. Aunt Masha spoke first: “Oh, we didn’t make it. Have you been awake long? Sorry, we wanted to get back before you woke up.” Oksana asked, “But where did you go?”
Her husband smiled and said, “Let’s go home, we’ll tell you everything there. We have a surprise for you.” When they returned home, Aunt Masha and Viktor told the woman that they had been finalizing the closure of their mortgage since early morning. It turned out that all these years, the aunt had been saving money from her pension. Also, she had recently completed the sale of her house. All this money she had saved for them, to leave as an inheritance. But she decided it would be better to give it to them now. This amount was just enough to pay off the mortgage. She persuaded Viktor to do this secretly, to make it a surprise. Aunt Masha looked tenderly at her niece: “Oksanochka, you know, I’ve worked all my life. The Lord did not give me my own children, but you are like my own to me. I so want you to live easier and happier. Now you can quit one job, you’ll be more at home, with the children.”
The children dragged the aunt into the room, her husband joyfully ran to the store for a cake to celebrate the joyful event. And Oksana sat in the kitchen, lost in her thoughts. She wiped a tear from her cheek and said, “Thank you for having Aunt Masha.”