Former Homel Doctor: We've Never Lived So Badly And So Poorly

An emotional outpouring of a retired woman.

A resident of Homel, who used to work as a doctor, wrote to the press service of the European Belarus civil campaign about how she survives on a small pension:

- In the early 80's I was given a dacha plot of land of six hundred square meters near Homel, then a lot of people in our clinic, who had experience, were given such plots, - she says. - My husband and I were bringing it to rights and we were happy.

Our salaries were not very high even then, and the summer garden was not a bad support. But even then it wasn't so bad, it was never so bad that only the dacha was feeding us. And so we lived, raised children and grandchildren at this dacha, the last fifteen years nothing grew there, the grandson only went to mow the grass and we rested there whenever we wanted.

It continued this way until last year, because the daughter lost her job, the son-in-law's salary is funny, and prices grow very fast.

The dacha started feeding us again, but it's hard for us, our daughter works there more often. We are old people, we cannot do much anymore, but I can water something, and the grandfather can hardly move after a stroke.

Last winter we ate a lot more pumpkin and zucchini, our dacha was feeding us. This year we're going to plant everything again.

If we talk about me and my husband, our grandchildren used to help us, now they help both us and the parents.

Our grandchildren live in various places. One in Homel, one in Minsk, one in Germany, where they studied and stayed, he works.

You're talking about this coronavirus. I am a doctor, I have huge experience and I understand that neither my husband, nor I, nor my daughter and her family should travel by these trains, but there is no choice at all. If we don't go, we'll starve to death, you won't start robbing at our age. That's why we're travelling.

My daughter's almost retired as well as my son-in-law. If they retire, it'll be worse, there'll be even less money. I can't even imagine how to move on. It's just a curse.