Yaroslavl Teacher, Family's Youngest, Shares 102-Year Life Story
Resident of Pereslavl-Zalessky in Yaroslavl Oblast Nina Abramova celebrated her 101st birthday on January 12, 2026. But that«s according to the documents. According to the centenarian herself, she is even older. The woman names January 15, 1924 as her true birth date. So now, according to Nina Vladimirovna, she has actually turned not 101, but 102 years old.
The Youngest in a Priest«s Family
«My father is a priest. We had four children in the family. I was the youngest. The village council recorded our birth dates only some time after my birth. Mom didn»t have time to go herself then — the village council was five to six kilometers from our home. She asked a neighbor to convey the data. And that one mistakenly said the wrong numbers,« explained Nina Vladimirovna the confusion with her age.
She did not try to get the date corrected. She says there was never a pressing need for it. But she always celebrates her birthday on January 15.
The centenarian«s family first lived in the village of Nikolo-Ramenye in Poshekhonsky District. Nina Vladimirovna still considers her early childhood years the happiest. But around 1930, grief came to the family — persecution of the church began, and her father was sent into exile to Siberia. The church where he served was destroyed.
Nina Vladimirovna«s mother moved with the children to the village of Artemyevo in Myshkinsky District. The family, left without a breadwinner, struggled. To somehow support the children, mom got a job as a teacher at a school.
In 1939, the father returned from exile, but lived only a short time after that.
The Most Difficult Period
The daughter followed in her mother«s footsteps — she also trained to be a teacher. For over 40 years, Nina Abramova taught Russian language and literature at a school in Myshkinsky District.
The most difficult, in her opinion, were the first years of the Great Patriotic War. Then she, like many other women, worked on the home front — engaged in agricultural work, grew vegetables for the front.
«There were bombings over Yaroslavl Oblast too,» recalls the centenarian.
Three Grandchildren and Ten Great-Grandchildren
Only after the war did Nina Vladimirovna get married. She and her husband Mikhail Nikolayevich had two daughters. Now the centenarian has three grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
Nina Vladimirovna«s husband passed away in 2004. The woman still remembers him warmly.
«My husband worked in the forestry service. He was good, handy,» she said.
The Secret to Longevity and Advice for the Young
After retiring, Nina Vladimirovna continued to lead an active lifestyle for a long time. She lived in the village until age 93, worked in the garden, planted potatoes. But age eventually took its toll. In recent years, strength began to leave the centenarian. Her daughter Marina from Pereslavl-Zalessky took her in to provide proper care.
Nina Abramova believes that she was able to live over 100 years thanks to good genetics and health inherited from her parents (the centenarian«s mother lived to 87). It is possible that the hardships that befell our interviewee in some way toughened her up.
«There was a time when I sat half-starved. There were many difficulties that had to be overcome,» recalls Nina Abramova.
It is unknown how long the brothers and sister of our heroine would have lived. All of them, unfortunately, did not die of natural causes. The eldest brother perished in the war, the second froze to death. The sister died from poisoning.
To the youth, the centenarian gave her advice: «The most important thing in life for a person is to work. To work honestly. If everyone contributes, life will become easier for all.»
Recall that until recently, the oldest resident of Yaroslavl Oblast was considered Kladiya Gadyuchkina. But on November 29, 2025, she passed away. She was 116 years old.
