My Grandma did not think about her looks. All her beauty care consisted of the simplest actions: washing her face (she said that nothing was better for the face than plain water), and brushing her hair with a comb. Once in a while, Grandma used the simplest moisturizing cream. She didn’t buy herself new clothes and wore what was given to her; as I grew older, she would sometimes wear things that bored me. I remember: for many years in the winter she wore a jacket she had bought for me and my sneakers.

Over the years, she cut down more and more money on herself. For example, when her reading glasses broke, she decided not to buy new ones and strictly forbade us to do so. If we bought her something without permission, Grandma would take offense, but the plan to help us by denying herself even the necessities didn’t work that way. Sometimes it was very hard for me to stand up to the conditions she set for me because I thought my Grandma had taken care of me as a child, and now it was my turn to take care of her. In her long life, she had learned to give very well, but she didn’t want to accept anything in return.