I could not demand such a church upbringing from any nurse, and therefore I always asked the Lord to vouchsafe me to raise children myself. And my assistant Natalia Ivanovna was herself one of those who turned to God recently, after suffering heavy losses. In her youth, Natalia Ivanovna lived in Alma-Ata, she had her own house, garden, husband and children. She gave birth to children four times, but two soon died, Natalia Ivanovna raised only two sons. "Before the war, I did not remember God," said Natalia Ivanovna. But the husband did not return from the front, the youngest son died. Left with one boy, Natalia Ivanovna decided to move to Moscow, where she had relatives. Having only an elementary education, she got a job at a factory, in a dry cleaner's, and again she was far from religion, until she received a call from the hospital: "Your son is in serious condition, fell during a physical education lesson, bruised his head." He died two hours later in his mother's arms. This misfortune was followed by another: Natalia Ivanovna herself fell down the stairs at the factory, broke her leg.

And so, only having lost her family and health, Natalia Ivanovna thought about life: what did she lead her to? What awaits her next? The husband is among those who gave their lives for the Motherland. The Lord will accept him as having fulfilled God's commandment to love one's neighbor. Four children died in childhood, which means that they too will inherit the Heavenly Kingdom as still sinless. Then she herself must embark on the path that leads to eternal life. And Natalia Ivanovna came to church to serve God for the rest of her days. She attended all the services, knitted for the children of Father Vladimir. And when I heard that the priest had a sick baby in the family, I decided: I have hands, I can swaddle him, feed him from a bottle.

So, God sent a nanny to Fedenka. Well, Natalia Ivanovna had a strong, persistent character! My mother said: "She should be a minister if she had an education!" She delved into all affairs, gave advice, respected the priest, and loved Fedyushka and the children - she loved all of us without memory! At six o'clock in the morning, she came to my nursery, took Fedya to her with the words: "Sleep, my dear, while the children are sleeping, because you have not slept all night."

And Natalia Ivanovna said: "I know, I know... Don't tell me. I had children, I know what a dream with a baby, I know..." And he will take my baby away from me, and I will actually sleep for another hour.

And at ten o'clock in the morning Natalia Ivanovna went with Fedya to the fence, that is, to the church. There, under the stickies, they stayed until six in the evening, until the mosquitoes overpowered them. The older children also walked in the fence, brought Fedya more bottles of food, diapers, took away dirty laundry. Natalia Ivanovna refused to come to dinner, so the guys brought her soup, and a second course, and a drink. She rode with a stroller along all the paths of the church park, choosing windless corners near the walls of churches, pulling "sails" from diapers over the baby. So Fedenka spent his first summer in the air, got stronger and grew up. In August, he was already firmly seated and in December he began to walk.

In winter, of course, the long festivities stopped, Natalia Ivanovna was already in charge of the house. That year, I sent Katyusha to school, who had dreamed of school since she was five years old, learned to read and write on her own. She carefully followed her brothers' lessons, took a worn-out backpack, stuffed it with books, dragged it with her. Katya played school all day long, imagining that she was learning her homework, collecting books, looking at her watch, saying: "It's time to go, we still have to have time to ride down the mountain on a panfei (briefcase)." Everyone laughed: "That's why the guys began to leave the house early - a snowy mountain appeared on the way!" Infectious diseases began again, which went through everyone in turn: from the beginning of the year - mumps, then measles. Nothing, God had mercy, everyone recovered, although the elders were seriously ill. Fedya was vaccinated with gamma globulin, and he suffered measles on his legs. Even the rash was only under the eyes. But Natalia Ivanovna was very worried: "Oh, everything will fall on his gut." In vain we calmed her down, it was impossible to convince her of anything. It got ridiculous. She will collect a penny full of wallets, begin to scatter handfuls of coins in all the rooms. Money clinks on the windows, rolls out, the guys laugh! "No, don't laugh, you need to have a lot of money in the house, it should be lying everywhere," Natalia Ivanovna assures. Unfortunately, she believed in omens.

My girls, playing with dolls in their corner, decided to cook dinner there. They brought bread, apples, carrots, etc., to the second floor, and arranged a doll's dining room. Soon, huge black cockroaches appeared in the nursery. My father and I began to think about how to deal with cockroaches, but Natalia Ivanovna firmly declared: "There is no need to poison them: this is for money, for wealth."

In general, everyone in the family obeyed the priest. Volodya did not like Natalia Ivanovna's willfulness. In the evening he told me: "Everyone is asleep, the day is over, tell Natalia Ivanovna to stop rattling pots in the kitchen." But it was useless to talk to her. She pointed out the dirt to me, assured me that the soot could be cleaned, and continued to scrape my black pans. My father shook his head: "What a restless woman! He will bring himself to a heart attack. Go unscrew the corks." I obeyed. "Oh, what a misfortune! The light went out," Natalia Ivanovna sighed and got to her bed in the dark.

No matter how grateful we were to Natalia Ivanovna for her selfless help and selfless work, we still tolerated her only out of need. The presence of a stranger in one's family always brings disharmony to the usual way of life. Children quickly begin to adopt from a new person something that they have not met before: the manner of behaving, speaking, acting. For example, it had never occurred to my children before that it was possible to disobey, not obey, argue with their parents. A bad example is contagious. There were also cases of disobedience and self-will with older children, but this was quickly stopped by the strictness of parents. But over "Baba Nata" (as Fedya called Natalia Ivanovna) Volodya and I could not exercise our power. She stubbornly remained in her opinion, and we - in ours. For example, when Fedya grew up, Natalia Ivanovna began to demand that his underwear be washed separately from other children's. No, I could not single out Fedya. It happened that the kid broke and destroyed everything built on the floor by the elders. The children defend their houses, drive Fedya away, and he shouts and resists. Natalia Ivanovna hears him crying, comes in and says: "Who is mine? (i.e., "Who offended me?") Come on, every single one, so that there is no one!" commands Natalia Ivanovna. This means that all the children must leave the room, leaving Fedyushka to scatter both blocks and toys. "No," I say to the nurse, "this is not good. Fedya must know the word "impossible." But Natalia Ivanovna was not able to be strict with her favorite, she pampered him.

We noticed that as soon as Fedya sees a bowl of water brought to the table to wash his face and hands after eating, he comes to life, stops turning away from the spoon, splashes with delight. Taking advantage of the moment, Natalia Ivanovna manages to put a few more spoonfuls of soup into the baby's mouth at these moments. Then a basin of cold water began to be put on the table at the same time as porridge, soup, and any food. Fedyushka was twitching, washing, the table was flooded, water was flowing on the floor. Pleased with Fedya's joy, Natalia Ivanovna quickly put spoon after spoon into his mouth. At one of these moments, my father came in and asked:

"What is it?"

Natalia Ivanovna replied with a smile:

"That's how we eat, daddy, we can't do otherwise.

"Stop this pampering!" Father barked.