It was bitter cold outside, I barely ran from the bus stop to the entrance. And there, a familiar picture appeared before me: the neighbor’s children in old demi-season jackets could not get through to their apartment.

• Mom, open it, we are cold …
• What, fell asleep again, does not hear?
  Eight-year-old Vika sighed heavily and nodded. Her four-year-old brother was in tears and sobbing.
• Come to me. Keep warm and find something to eat.
  The guys followed me up the stairs to the floor above.

This was far from the first time that a drunken mother sent her children to «walk» in order to engage in a personal life with her roommate in a rented one-room apartment. And everything ended with the same thing: a tipsy couple fell asleep in a warm bed, and the children remained in the stairwell.

Once, I even had to leave them to spend the night, because we could not get through. So in the morning I also received a scolding from this unfortunate mother that, you see, she took her children away without warning.

It’s probably time to complain before something terrible happens. Well, it’s summer, but here it’s winter-wintering, children and clothes don’t have normal warm clothes, they’ll still freeze …

That evening, the children and I again could not get through to the apartment, although Vika said that she had seen from afar, when she and her brother were still walking, that Uncle Vova, her mother’s roommate, left the entrance and went somewhere. It seemed strange to me, but I thought that the girl could be mistaken, since she saw from afar.

Mother did not open the door in the morning either. I had to call the police, and at work ask for an administrative. The police drove for a long time. Upon arrival, they had to break down the door. Galina, the mother of Vika and Sasha, lay in bed and did not move, but she was alive. The police called an ambulance.

The doctor who arrived diagnosed Galina with either a stroke or a heart attack. It was obvious that something had happened to the woman last night, but since medical assistance was not provided in a timely manner, now there were very few chances to save the mother of the children.

The woman was taken to the hospital, and the children were allowed to stay with me for the time being. I had to testify for a long time, sign some papers and help compose an identikit of Galina’s roommate.

The police had to find this man in order to find out if he caused his common-law wife any harm, because of which she was now in such a state.

• Aunt Tanya, and if mom is gone, will you leave us with you forever? I don’t want to go to an orphanage… I saw on TV that it’s very bad for children there…

Vika looked at me with pitying eyes, and I did not know what to answer her. I felt sorry for these children, but I myself was not very prosperous. All my life I raised my only son alone, I sighed only recently, when my son graduated from college and got a job.

Although he now lives in another city and supports himself, he will probably get married soon and will need to help him with an apartment and future grandchildren.

I expressed all these thoughts to the investigator, who offered me to issue guardianship when he brought the news that Galya’s neighbor was no more.

• Tatyana Petrovna, the state will help you in this good deed. You will receive a survivor’s pension for each child, and the allowance for foster children is now not bad, you can handle it.

I was still afraid, I needed to consult with my son. That evening I called him and told him what had happened.

• Mom, decide for yourself, but if I were you, I would agree. Knowing you, I suspect that if you do otherwise, you will then plague yourself with doubts that you did not do the right thing. Nerves will pass, you will get sick again, but I need a healthy mother!
• Convinced! Come and meet new relatives.

Vika and Sasha stayed with me. State aid is really enough for me to maintain them, and my life has become more interesting and diverse with these guys, as if I have returned to the times when my adult son was still small.