Miss Lyuba can be found at the corner of Leonid Sovinof and Buyun Turun streets. She spends her time crocheting colorful and tiny flowers out of raffia and yarn which she dyes herself. She also sells cigarettes by the unit to anyone who needs a quick smoke, usually young high school and university youth. She lays her wares out on a square piece of cloth -which she unfolds from her big satchel- and stretches out on the sidewalk. Cigarretes and yarn-y blooms are on display. She never anchors them with anything to stop them from flying out with the wind gusts. Winter is coming soon and with it dusty, gray freezing rain and sleet. What will she do by then?
I've been watching Miss Lyuba for a few days from a nearby park bench here in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She caught my attention because she so reminds me of my late grandmother!...her beautiful and remarkably wrinkled face, her silvery hair and vivacious gray eyes.
Every other day, she places flowers on windshields, on coffee-shop tables, or on people's hands when they are not looking. She doesn't ask for any money but people always give her some.
Miss Lyuba like many other very elderly women in this former Soviet republic, have lost everything after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The restructuring of the country's social security system is too costly and not very sustainable. High unemployment, an aging population and out of control inflation are all factors in the break-up of the pension system in the post-Soviet 1990’s.
Average pensions barely cover necessities making it essential for the elderly to continue working as they are no longer receiving stipends for food and medicine.
When I put the equivalent of twenty dollars in Lyuba’s hand, her eyes began to water. She only whispered ‘spaciba’, ‘pashalsta’ I replied, squeezing her hand –full knowing that the amount would help her in the month to come. What else can I do to alleviate these people's suffering?
ESW@11/'96
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