'My Sweetie, Hold On': Father Frost Visits Patients at Omsk Hospice
«A fly sat on the jam, that»s the whole poem.« This children»s rhyme in the wards of City Hospital No. 17 on Kosmichesky Prospekt (Cosmic Avenue) brought not a smile, but laughter through tears. In the department that everyone calls a hospice, time flows by its own laws, but before the New Year, its passage was interrupted by the creak of felt boots and ringing laughter. A guest entered the wards, one awaited with childlike trepidation.
A correspondent and photographer from NGS55.RU saw how Father Frost (the Russian Santa Claus) and volunteers gave a New Year«s miracle to cancer patients. More details are in the report by Anastasia Vlasova and Evgeny Sofiychuk.
The Magician They Waited For
Along the long corridor, where the silence is broken by the quiet sound of a television working in the distance, muffled steps were heard. It is not a doctor in a white coat, whom the patients see every day, but a man in a red fur coat. He is a real disruption of the routine and a necessary medicine.
They were waiting for Father Frost in his quilted pants, felt boots, and padded jacket. He brought for each patient the most valuable gift, which fit in words: «my good one,» «sweetie,» and «hold on.»
Before entering the first ward, the magician walked through the department, peeking in to announce his arrival: «Hello, my good ones! Grandfather will come to everyone, talk to everyone.»
Father Frost«s voice is warm, a little hoarse. Listening to him, one gets the feeling that an old friend is standing before you. Just like that, in a friendly manner, he begins the conversation with the patients.
Towels, Mandarins, and Warm Words
The first ward, where four patients lie almost motionless. In their eyes is the usual fatigue, but now curiosity is also visible. A volunteer in a Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) costume deftly helps «grandfather» untie the sack. They take out not supermarket sets, but something personal, with soul. Cute little towels, adorned with bullfinches, snowflakes, and New Year«s patterns. Then come small bags, containing a mandarin and little greeting cards made by children from an adaptive school (for children with special needs).
«So that the little bullfinch birds are always nearby. You can look at them, admire them. And wipe your hands, if need be,» Father Frost explains, carefully handing over the gift.
While handing out gifts, the magician finds a key word for each. For him, everyone here is a granddaughter or grandson, who need love and support.
«My sweetie, how are you?» he asks, and carefully hides a fragile hand in his mitten. Someone with tears in their eyes tells how long they have waited for the magician and how glad they are that he came to them.
«I am so happy, Father Frost is so awesome.»
«And how happy I am to have seen such a sweet girl. Don»t lose that sparkle in your eyes, my good one. The New Year is around the corner, one must believe in the best, not despair.«
After the introductory part and congratulations, mandarins appear. Their smell, according to some patients, helps them look into the past, into a healthy, carefree time.
«Remember, like in childhood?» asks Father Frost, and a shadow of a smile runs across the elderly woman«s face.
For many, peeling the bright peel is an overwhelming task. And then the volunteer Snegurochka, without further ado, takes the fruit: «Shall I help you peel it?»
A moment later, neat slices are placed on a napkin, on that same towel with bullfinches. Snegurochka feeds some, because they don«t have the strength to take the fruit in their hand. Others try to manage on their own.
«Let the Soul Be Filled with Quiet Happiness»
In some wards, Father Frost listened to rhymes, and in others, he was the one asked to recite something.
«Tell us a rhyme!» asks a grandmother with eyes like two dark lakes. Father Frost doesn«t hesitate and delivers a short and funny poem: »A fly sat on the jam, that«s the whole poem.»
These lines bring the «granddaughter» to tears of laughter. It hurts her to laugh, she starts coughing, but despite that, for a few seconds the pain recedes, replaced by simple, unbridled joy.
«Every time, it»s like the first class,« she says later, looking at a children»s card with a crooked but beautiful mitten, brought by volunteers from children of the adaptive school.
«The kids tried hard, they say, please pass this on to the grandmothers and grandfathers.»
But the main poetess of the department is Dina Mikhailovna. Fragile as a bird, she worked as a welder for 23 years. Her hands remember the weight of the apparatus, and her soul gives birth to lines. When her health allowed, the patient wrote them down in a notebook.
Reading the lines to Father Frost, she struggles with shortness of breath, but continues: «Let the soul be filled with quiet happiness, and let the mood be wonderful... health to you, longevity. Take care of each other. Life is given only once.»
Father Frost, listening, cannot hold back a tremble in his voice: «You are a fighter. Keep your chin up. In spite of everyone!»
79-year-old Dina Mikhailovna admits that from birth until today, she has been an orphan. She had no one and has no one left, but even despite that, she admits that she loves people and loves life.
«You know, I want to go up on a hill and look at the whole world,» the orphan says with childlike dreaminess.
Before Father Frost and the volunteers leave her ward, Dina Mikhailovna quietly and with embarrassment in her voice asks: «On New Year»s, remember this grandmother.«
Patients Don«t Wait for Gifts
Watching over all this action, like quiet guardian angels, are the department«s staff. They know who cannot have sweets, and who needs help turning to accept a gift. Their care is a daily, quiet feat.
«If a person had a black heart, they wouldn»t be able to work here,« says Father Frost, watching a nurse encourage a patient.
The department«s staff see not the illness, but the person. That very »grandmother who sometimes goes home and then comes back again.« Or »Borya, who is offended at the whole world,« who today for the first time in a long time allowed a mandarin to be placed on his bedside table.
The volunteers of the «Embracing the Sky» foundation also know every patient. They visit weekly, communicate, encourage, and instill hope for the better.
«You know, the most important thing is that patients don»t wait for gifts. They wait to be remembered. For someone to call them «my joy,» «sweetie,» for there to be simple human contact. Sometimes it«s enough to sit down, peel a mandarin, and listen. A person needs to know that they are important.»
Miracle in Each of Us
When the sack was empty and the last «thank you» was heard, the department was left not with emptiness, but with a warm, almost tangible aftertaste of the holiday. On the bedside tables lie mandarins and cards from unknown children, in their hands are New Year«s towels.
When all the patients had received, albeit a small, but necessary portion of New Year«s magic, Father Frost went to congratulate those who daily care for his »granddaughters and grandsons.«
He gave mandarins, sweets, and warm words not only to doctors and nurses, but also to the lift operator, security guard, and cloakroom attendant. They, like the medical staff, daily try to help everyone who comes within the walls of the clinic.
The «Embracing the Sky» volunteers leave, having agreed on the next visit, but now not in costumes, but in ordinary clothes: «We come to bring diapers, talk, just sit nearby. Because the holiday is not only once a year.»
The miracle is not that Father Frost came, but that here, on the edge, where the struggle for life continues every day, laughter is heard. Volunteers and doctors bring laughter into the patients« lives, even if sometimes through tears. Grandmothers and grandfathers thank for a piece of mandarin and caring hands.
«We must remember that hope is not only in miracles, it is in each of us,» the gray-haired magician sums up the New Year«s greetings.
A few days ago, a New Year«s celebration was held at the Omsk adaptive school. Special needs children, who love the New Year with all their heart, performed for parents and teachers. More details are in the article by Ekaterina Shrayner.
