Leo was born in 1937 - at the height of the Era of Great Terror in Russia . When he
was only a year old, his father was imprisoned and then executed as an "enemy of the state". Mother and infant were sent to distant Kazakhstan, the faraway city of Balkhash. Soon his mother became ill and died, and little Leo was put in an overcrowded orphanage. There he grew up and went to school. After the death of Stalin, when he returned to Moscow with a diploma from high school, he found strangers living in the apartment of his parents. He had to look for a dwelling place for himself. He got a job as a plumber in a housing maintenance office, where he was given a small room in the basement of a building. Further education was not possible, since it was necessary for him to make a living.
After a few years, he managed to save a little money and buy a motorcycle, which was the cherished dream of the postwar young generation. Happy Leo worked long hours, and at night drove on his motorcycle, racing through the deserted streets of Moscow. But one day, he unexpectedly collided with a turning truck. Collision
was inevitable ...
He woke up in the hospital. His life was saved, but Leo’s leg had to be amputated extremely high, attaching a prosthesis was impossible. The young man, with no family and friends, now a cripple, with no occupation turned into a disaster. But then fate smiled at him. Ida G. the doctor who nursed him in the hospital was older than Leo by 12 years. Both were children of former prisoners. He moved into a wooden house on the outskirts of Moscow where Ida G. lived with her parents, who returned from exile from Komi in the North of USSR. The house had no inside toilet or running water, but provided comfort, warmth, and a trusting relationships between all members of the family. Leo Osipovich took any work that could be performed by people with disabilities, such as gluing boxes for a pharmacy for mere pennies. They lived a modest life, but happy together. They could not have children, for Ida It was too late. Then her parents died one after the other. Ida Grigorievna also passed away a few years later from cancer.
Leo Osipovich lives alone. Moscow grew, new homes were built. His house was torn down, and Leo Osipovich was given a one-room apartment in the same area, on the fourth floor with no elevator. There he lives now. Lonely, sick, with only one leg ... only memories of a once happy family life...
But somehow, a woman from the organization Chamah looked him up and saw a simple life of a disabled Jew. She started to bring him food and help with housework. It did not take long, and the volunteer of Chamah saw a shy smile on the face of Leo Osipovich...
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