The story of Tamara Alekseevna Gerasimova, the invalid of I group on sight, Kineshma member of the local organization of all-Russian blind society: "I was born in 1938 in Sladkovo village, Nebilovsky district, Vladimir region. In 1941, the war began. My father, Alexey Nikolaevich Agafanov, went to the front. My mother had three of us: me and two brothers. Sometimes German planes flew in the sky at night. They said they were going to Moscow. My mother wrapped me in a blanket and carried me to the bomb shelter, which was located next to the house - in the basement of the Church. I looked out of the blanket with one eye and saw a tiny plane in the sky, flying very high and humming terribly. My mother worked all day in the kolkhoz. Leaving for work, she gave a task for each of us: to sweep the floor, to saw wood, who to bring water. That was how our life flowed every day. And every day we waited for a letter from the front. When famine began, we ate only potatoes, which we grew in our garden. But it was enough only for winter, in the spring we lived half-starved - there were no potatoes, morу so, bread. We went to the kolkhoz field, looking for rotten potatoes left after the winter. Then my mother baked pancakes from it, we called them nausea, because they were not tasty at all, but there was no other food. If you want to eat, we go to the meadow, pick pipes and eat. I always wanted to eat. One day we received a notification from the front, which reported the death of our father. My mother became weak and often ill. We tried to help her as much as we could. In 1943, my brother Alexander was taken to Red Army. Later, in the end of the war, we a funeral letter about my brother, who died liberating Warsaw. Brother Afanasy was drafted into Red Army in the end of 1944. He will end the war in Berlin. Afanasy will serve in Germany for 7 years. I finished high school in 1956. I started to lose my eyesight abruptly, and received II group of disability. I have lived in Kineshma since 1960. I worked at the educational and production enterprise VOS (All-Soviet Blind Society), engaged in Amateur art. I am a VOS veteran, my work experience is 45 years. I am already 81 years old, but I am an active reader of Kineshma branch # 1. I try to attend events and libraries in Kineshem local organization VOS. Shell I Remember the war? Or maybe it is necessary to remember the war more often? So that our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren know what war is. It's hard to believe how we could survive these difficult years!»