Svetlana Ivanovna just came running from work

I have to cook, do the laundry, feed my daughter – she’ll be back from school soon. She’s running around, all in a lather.

The woman is already retired, but she has to work part-time, cleaning a store. Her daughter is finishing school, and her pension is not enough.

And then the bell rings

The woman quickly wiped her hand, put the phone to her ear, and continued peeling potatoes. The unknown man greeted her, gave her details, and asked if it was she. Svetlana Ivanovna answered discontentedly that she didn’t need anything, don’t call here again. It’s a pity her hands were dirty, she couldn’t put it down right away. But a male voice hurried to tell her that it was about her son.

“What happened?” the woman became worried. “I won’t transfer the money anywhere,” she warned right away.

“You don’t need the money, you’ll need it yourself,” the man said gloomily. “Come to the station and meet your son.”

Svetlana Ivanovna was puzzled. At first she couldn’t understand what the stranger was talking about. Why should she go to the station? Her son was an adult, he could walk there himself. He knew she didn’t have time.

The man gave the train number and what time it would arrive. Briefly said that the guy needed help. They had rescued one of the captives, wounded, without documents. It seemed to be her son, but not for sure. He didn’t say anything specific about his health. That’s all.

The woman looked at the potatoes in her hands with confusion.

What was all this for? Her son was a strong and smart man, he couldn’t do this – captured, wounded. And what did it mean – it seemed like he was? So there was something wrong with his head? Or maybe it wasn’t Andrey. She was worried. And there was little time, and her daughter would soon come home from school. But there was nothing to do. She ran to the station. She didn’t say anything to Olya. She herself didn’t know what was going on. Why upset the child.

Olya still considered herself a child

The girl is too modest, she hasn’t seen life, she needs to be looked after.

But Andrey is a grown-up guy, already 29. He didn’t need help. He’s independent.

The son started working part-time early, he saw how hard it was for his mother, and he needed to satisfy his own desires. You can’t get much from your mother.

The woman is glad that Andrey is not hanging around her neck. And after the army, he decided to connect his life with the military. Now he is serving under contract. He earns well, saves for his own home.

All in agitation, Svetlana Ivanovna barely managed to run to the station at the appointed time.

The train has pulled up. The passengers are getting off, Andrey is not among them.

And then he sees people in uniform carrying someone out of the train car on a stretcher.

The woman stood in a stupor, looking at this. Everything was mixed up in her head. Could it really be a son?

There was a man in uniform smoking next to the carriage, and she approached him.

“What’s wrong with him?” asked Svetlana Ivanovna, pointing to the stretcher.

“The guy was unlucky,” the soldier sighed. “He’s paralyzed, he’ll be disabled for life. His spine is broken, he’s lost his memory.”

The woman covered her mouth with her hand. What about her now? She was just happy that she had raised one child, thank God, sent her out into the world, now all that was left was to raise her daughter. And then such grief. She came closer hesitantly.

– Here, take him, woman, – the stretcher was held in front of her. – Your son? Did you recognize him?

She looked at Andrey with fear.

The son looked at her, confused. As if he was seeing her for the first time. The woman noticed his hand, lying motionless. The soldiers waited silently.

“No, he is not my son,” she finally answered.

Of course, she recognized Andrey, but she didn’t admit it. In a few unbearable minutes of watching what was happening, she had already decided everything. Her daughter, Olya, had never seen life, and now she would have to look after her brother. She, poor thing, already suffers because her mother is not young. After all, she gave birth to her when she was almost 50.

Both of Svetlana Ivanovna’s children are not young.

It was hard. Her health was no longer that of a young woman, and after the birth of her daughter she had gained so much weight that she practically did not take care of herself. Her husband eventually left her for another woman. And she raised the children on her own. And this is what happened in her old age – she will not be able to support a disabled person.

It was a difficult decision for her. To choose between the well-being of her daughter and her son, who could no longer be helped. Olya still had a chance for a normal life, but he no longer had one.

Svetlana Ivanovna turned around and walked away.

Tears were running down her cheeks. The men watched her go. Maybe they understood everything, but they kept silent. They wouldn’t do anything anyway. They couldn’t hand it over by force.

At home, the daughter was finishing cooking the soup.

“Olechka, I’m sorry, I didn’t have time,” the mother justified herself.

“Yes, don’t worry, I can do it myself,” the girl smiled.

“No, no, you’d better rest, I’ll do everything myself, then I’ll call you,” Svetlana Ivanovna kicked her daughter out of the kitchen, she needed to calm down so as not to show it.

The woman was very protective of her daughter

She was afraid that the girl would grow up deprived of attention. After all, without a father, the mother is old. Without realizing it, she made her daughter too dependent by excessive care and control. And she let her son arrange his own life, she thought that she had already done everything for him, he is a man.

And now she tried to protect her daughter from bad news. Only a few days later, having gathered her strength, she told Olya that her brother had died in the war. There was no body, buried in a mass grave in a foreign land. And she told all her friends that Andrei had perished. People did not ask for details, it was hard enough for a mother.

And Andrey remained Andrey

True, they gave him a different surname. His relatives were never found, so they had to leave the guy in this city.

At first, he was thrown from one place to another. From the train station to the hospital, since there was nowhere to put him. They didn’t keep him there for long, they somehow shoved him into a nursing home, from there they sent him somewhere else. Then back to the hospital. And in the end, they collected some certificates, sent the young man to a boarding house where the lonely, old and helpless lived.

Thus, the man found himself in a terrible institution. There were elderly people, unwanted by anyone, and disabled people who could not fully take care of themselves. Those thrown into one place were those who had been abandoned by their relatives or were simply lonely in life.

People were treated like animals there. Not only did the staff not care, but some of the residents were inadequate. A whole gang operated here. Elderly criminals who had spent their entire lives in prisons now settled in the boarding house and terrorized the rest of the residents.

Andrey was bedridden. There was practically no care. The stench was all around. Everyone was angry, the staff – because the work was hard, and the residents – intimidated by both the staff and the ex-cons. The food was bad, it was useless to talk about treatment. They could only give someone painkillers, and even then, if they had absolutely no strength. In such conditions, the old people could not stand it for long. And Andrey could not expect anything good from this life.

But one day an unfamiliar woman came to the boarding house

Her son was also a contract soldier, serving in hot spots. His fellow soldiers claimed that he died during a combat operation, but his body was never found and he was considered missing in action.

Natalya heard that a soldier without documents had been brought to the boarding house, and she came here, hoping that it was her son.

The woman entered the premises. She immediately felt uneasy. Almost a homeless shelter, the smell of mold, peeling walls, the staff – angry as dogs. Words cannot be said, discontent is through the roof. And she just came to visit. It is scary to imagine how they treat their guests.

They took her to this guy’s room. The woman almost threw up. A skinny young man was lying in the bed. The bedding was grey, washed countless times. She wouldn’t even use it as rags. There was despair in the guy’s eyes, you couldn’t tell how old he was. At first glance, you’d think he was an old man.

Natalya came closer and took a closer look. He wasn’t an old man at all, life had just gotten to him.

She started crying

“It’s him,” the woman said.

“Your mother?” the boarding house employee nodded to Andrey.

“I don’t know,” he looked at the women with apprehension.

– So, are you going to take him? – the employee looked at Natalia with distrust. – His memory is gone. And he can’t walk. I’m telling you right away that we won’t take him back, you’ll have to collect certificates later. You can’t dump him on the state if his relatives are alive.

In fact, Natalya knew that this was not her son, her boy would never return, but there was a faint hope somewhere that a miracle was possible. From a friend, she learned that a young soldier who had lost his memory was lying here. Out of despair, she went to check. And then she saw the conditions and decided that she couldn’t leave him here.

She had a hard time coming to terms with the death of her son, and now she won’t be able to live on if this young man is left here to die.

And she took Andrey home

He was happy to have found a family. He tried to remember at least something, but it didn’t work. And Natalia immediately took up his rehabilitation. She took him to the hospital, a trainer came to his home. As a result, the guy gradually got better. The woman looked after him as if he were her own son. She spent everything she had. But she didn’t regret it – her adopted son was getting back on his feet.

When Andrey got a little more comfortable, he started asking a lot of questions about his past life, and the woman revealed a secret to him. She admitted that he was not her son, she just couldn’t leave him there.

But Natalia still wanted to find the guy’s family

I imagined how the mother was grieving. Maybe she was looking for her son, hoping that he would return alive.

She learned his story. How he was brought to this city, they thought he was going to his mother, but she didn’t recognize him as her son. Natalya grabbed onto this thread. She wrote a letter to Svetlana Ivanovna. She asked if her son had returned from service. Maybe he knew something about this unknown soldier. This man was living with her, he had virtually no physical limitations, he was recovering, he was making huge progress. Only his memory had not returned.

“Mom,” Olya called out to her mother several times. “What’s there?”

“Nothing interesting,” the elderly woman quickly crumpled the letter and shoved it into her pocket. “Just a chain letter. I thought they didn’t do that kind of thing.”

Svetlana Ivanovna managed to reread this letter several times.

She understood that they were talking about her son.

The elderly woman looked at her daughter. Olya was already finishing college. She worked. She helped her mother. Svetlana Ivanovna didn’t know how her daughter’s life would have turned out if she had had to look after her brother.

And the mother did not respond to this news. She was ashamed. But she convinced herself that she had no other choice. With her, Andrey would have no chance.

She worried a lot. And in the end her heart couldn’t take it. Two weeks after that letter of happiness she died.

As Svetlana Ivanovna wanted, she still got her daughter back on her feet. But she didn’t tell Olya that her brother was alive, and that it was a strange mother who got him back on his feet after being wounded.

After some time, Olya was sorting through her mother’s things.

The old dressing gown that her mother always wore around the house was about to be thrown away, but a crumpled envelope fell out of it. As a result, it was only six years later that the girl learned that her brother was alive.

Andrey was becoming more confident on his feet, but he mostly moved around in a wheelchair. He was still far from fully recovered, and his memory had not returned.

At some point, Natalya told him that they were going to a woman’s birthday party the next day. The man was happy. They rarely went anywhere for fun. The usual route was the hospital, the store, the market. Fortunately, they went to the hospital less and less often.

They lived modestly, the foster mother could not afford to organize holidays. All the money went to rehabilitation. Andrey, of course, did not know that they were going to his biological sister.

Olya was looking forward to this meeting with excitement.

And when she saw her brother, she couldn’t hold back her emotions, burst into tears and rushed to him. The man looked at Natalia in confusion. The woman also wiped tears from her eyes.

“Andrey, it’s me, your sister,” Olya cried, sitting on her knees in front of him.

He looked at her. His hands began to tremble, and he clutched first one, then the other, to stop the shaking. Some memories were returning. He looked around.

The walls are familiar, he’s been here before. It seems to be the kitchen. Exactly. The smell of stewed potatoes can be heard from there. An older woman should come out now and invite him to dinner.

“Mom?” he suddenly remembered.

Olya started crying again.

The sister was very happy about her brother’s return.

Unfortunately, their mother did not have the strength and courage to accept her sick son, but fortunately there was a kind woman who took care of him. Six years later, the brother and sister finally met, and he began to remember everything. 

It was a touching meeting, everyone cried with happiness. Natalya remained a dear person for Andrey. And over time, he completed training and began to repair household appliances, now he tried to help his adoptive mother. But she refused. She had everything she needed. She was glad that Andrey was now doing well. In a difficult time for her, he replaced her son.