Elena Vasilishyna

Elena Vasilishyna

As you walk on distinctions between near and far are lost. There is no punctuation in this sentence, but if you put the comma, you’ll see how wise the author was. One can find melancholy on the everlasting parting between people on the Earth. One can find his dream of far and calling destinations, but certainly each of us will recollect something very dear to our heart that we were impressed by and cannot forget. As you walk on, distinctions between near and far are lost.

I cannot help thinking of my mother, Elena Vasilishyna, a simple Belarusian woman of Polish origin whom I am obliged to with my birth. How does the process of my understanding her significance to me go? It’s like "a tiny lily bud that gradually unfolding, taking in a richer colour and new dimensions revealing its rich inner-self."

I believe she was talking to me when I was still in the darkness with lovely, sweet words, expecting my appearance. When I was a child she was caring of me as the majority of mothers are. She was a cook by occupation and she made even the simplest dishes so delicious that nobody could refuse to taste them. For her distinguished service, she was honored with the Order as a Veteran of Labour.

When it was time for her to retire, all her colleagues came to express their gratitude. All of us one day retire, but I haven’t seen before such regret on people’s faces on somebody’s retirement as it was on that day of my mom’s retirement party. She had a special charisma, charm that attracted people to her whatever their age or occupation. She had a knack of giving sound advice to all of them. But what is more precious for me was her ability to be a diplomat without being educated for that. She could find the solution for all our problems and say a kind word of compassion when someone was in despair. She was healing with her positive attitude to sorrows and difficulties not only for us, her family, but for all the people whom she knew and who were in touch with her. What a Golden Heart!!!

Despite her diseases, diabetes and heart attacks, she didn't complain to anybody. Just a few people knew how hard it was for her to experience pain every minute of her life. That is old age. But she was always jolly and cordial with all of us.

This summer, July 2007, I will never forget. I spent two weeks with her in the village where we stayed at our summer house. That was the real paradise for both of us, quiet life in a relaxed way. I’ll never forget her sweet words and everlasting mother’s love. The only thing that surprised me was when she took me to the cemetery where all our relatives were buried. She was the last of the sisters and the previous one of all the 9 children that were in her family. She showed me the place where she would like to be buried. I hadn’t a word to argue with her, I just wished her to live long. She showed me the curtains to decorate the room with when people would come to part with her, and the clothes to put on her for the last time. That was unbearable, but she could make it an ordinary thing talking of the sisters that came to her in her dream and even presented her with a cake in the form of a heart. She was preparing herself for this meeting with the elders and one younger, the loveliest sister.

I knew she wasn’t scared to go to them, she was waiting when she would be allowed, but at the same time she didn’t want to leave us. I know. She told me about that. Even at her last moments she worried about her grandchildren and about us, her daughters and a husband. What a loving Mother’s Heart!!!

She passed away on the 4th of November 2007 at the age of 70 in the hospital early in the morning when all the nurses were sleeping, having just parted at 6 a.m. with her lovely husband whom she loved dearly for almost 49 years. And now she was silent…

People who came for her funerals were talking instead of her. There were lots of people and lots of exciting words about her kindness and her great personality. For some of them she was a precious teacher not only in cooking, but in life matters as well, for someone - the best friend whom it is rare to find nowadays as such friendship that she was giving to them doesn’t exist anymore. Oh, my!!! She was the most magnanimous person after saints as she presented all herself to people and was forgiving and tolerant to them and to us, her daughters, whom she left the most precious present: the memory of herself. This memory is about her love and patience. People develop technical progress and make our life easier and more dangerous, but what remains unchangeable from the time of Adam and Eve is LOVE.

After all these praises, I couldn’t help thinking about my destiny and the results I’d come with before the judgment of the God. She made me think deeply about the way I communicate with people. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." What is in my words: anger, passion, self-assurance; reliability, kindness, love? What seeds do I put in every human heart? I think now about if I were caught by death at any moment, what people would say about me. She reminded me of the words: Memento Mori!!! Remember about the Death!!! Because when we are healthy and have energy to work and to play, our life as carefree as children, we don't think about the last moment that will end all this love and joy.

I’m talking about my mom’s distinguished heroism not because I’m her daughter, but because of her prominent personality and because she knew she would go soon, but she didn’t complain and she was extremely calm and kind to every person on the Earth. What tolerance and patience!!! She was able to agape all the people (all the works of life). "Do you agape me?" asked Jesus of his disciples. Have I given her enough of my love and kindness? I’ll never cover the depth and will never know now except the memory that tells me that I was loved by her and it means she enjoyed my company. My birth, my death will be a new experience. But I hope my destination will be praised like the destination of Elena Vasilishyna, the simple woman from the Belarusian village Yushkevichy, Brest region.