My Great Grandma Natasha

What was the life like in Ukraine back in the olden days? What if you were a hundred years old and still living? My great grandma has gone through a lot. She saw her parents, brother, sister, son, and grandchildren die yet she is still living. She moved many times throughout her life just to support her family. She is a strong and courageous woman who I have a lot of respect for. During my great grandma’s time she has seen the good and the bad in life. 

My great grandma, Natasha, grew up in a very hard environment. At the age of ten, her parents died, leaving her and her sister going to one foster home, and her two younger brothers going to a different foster home. She and her sister lost contact with her brothers but after twenty years they found one of the brothers. She never saw her other brother after her parents death. The kids never found a family to live with because back in the day the foster homes were more of adoption centers with fifty kids but no one would ever get adopted. In fact, there was no such thing as adoption so at the age of eighteen she and her sister went off living on their own. Natasha worked for a truck company and that is where she met her husband, Temafay.

Natasha and Temafay bought a little house on a farm. On the farm they had: cows, goats, pigs, chicken, dogs, cats and every vegetable you can think of. There first son died in a horrible condition. One day, he was crawling around a huge metal pot, fell in, and boiled to death. Natasha and Temafay were devastated but had to move on with their lives. There next son, Viktor and my grandpa, was born. He worked on the farm and was taught by his mother how to be a man. My grandpa also had three younger sisters that cooked, sowed, cleaned, and worked on the farm. Natasha was very strict when it came to raising her children. Temafay did not participate in raising the children because he worked for a tractor company so he was at work all day. 

My great grandma is currently a hundred years old. She still lives on the farm but in a different location than before. Her youngest daughter, Nada, lives with her because she can’t live by herself due to safety reasons. She has twenty four great grandchildren and she remembers everyone's name. She has a great memory and she remembers her childhood as if it were yesterday. My great grandma refuses to use a cell phone and computer because she never had that when she was growing up. She thinks that technology has ruined my generation. She has perfect vision, can hear well, and she doesn’t even use a cane. She has never gone to the doctors and always cures her sickness by herself. Over the summers of me visiting her, nothing changes except for her getting short and shorter. She still  cleans the house, works in the garden and she refuses to listen to anyone that says that she shouldn’t do work. 

My great grandma has gone through a lot and I look up to her for that. She is a brave women who still lives life like when she was little. She has seen horrible events that people should never have to face but it only made her a stronger person in the end. I admire her strength and I hope to be as strong as her when I grow up. I am very proud to say that I have a great grandma that is a hundred years old and on October 23rd she will be a hundred and one years old!

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