Siberia
I had a standing invitation to visit Janna’s (Conor
O’Cleary’s wife) parents. Conor was Asia correspondent for
the Irish Times and had been of great help to me in Beijing.....
I would like to say a few words by way of introduction to
my ‘Krasnoyarsk parents’, who looked after me for two days.
The husband, Stanislav, an Armenian Russian, had worked
in the Krasnoyarsk State Theatre as a shoemaker since 1940,
when he was thirteen years old. He was an active veteran
who had been on the job for some fifty-eight years. He now
grumbled about his failing hearing but my Russian was far
from proficient so we really enjoyed using hand gestures.
We had a ‘Stanislav and Yasu Krasnoyarsk Discourse’ instead
of a ‘Hashimoto and Yeltsin Krasnoyarsk Discourse’, an event
which took place years ago.
Stanislav’s wife, Marietta, also an Armenian Russian,
looked after me as though she was my own mother. She
prepared a shower for me and made a host of delicious
Armenian Russian dishes (the meat, rice and onion rolled in
cabbage was particularly tasty). On top of that, Marietta
went out of her way to answer even my most insignificant
questions and dealt with my problems and requests with a
bright shining smile.
(from "Against the Wind" - Poolbeg Press)
