“Get up at 6:30 in the morning, then you need to wake the children, prepare breakfast, collect them to school, and take the youngest to kindergarten. After this, a lot of things: you need to wash the dishes, wash clothes and feed the cattle: cows, pigs, chickens, geese and rabbits. Children and dogs help to feed dogs and cats, ”says Christina Yevtushenko, a 21-year-old resident of the Chelyabinsk village Elizavetopolskoye. The girl single-handedly brings up six brothers and a sister, whom she took custody of after the death of her parents.
The trouble did not come alone
“In the fall of 2016, dad died from lymph node cancer. Mom was very upset about his death and a year later fell ill. In the fall of 2017, she was admitted to the hospital, and they came to us from guardianship on the same day and said that the doctors did not give any predictions, her mother could die any day, so they would take away all the children. I immediately said that I would not give anyone back, ”Christina recalls.
Christina's mother died four days after the visit of officials. The girl was left alone with six younger brothers and sister.
“My wife was four years old, Dasha was six years old, Alyosha was eight, Valera was ten, Kostya was fifteen, Andrei was seventeen and Artyom was only eighteen,” Christina lists. “We were always together and didn’t want to leave.”
Immediately after the funeral, the girl collected all the documents and went into custody for the sole purpose - to ensure that the children were left to her.
“They did not want to leave my brothers and sister to me. I was only 19 years old. I just finished school and went to college. I was alone: without a husband, without education, without work. Relatives also insisted that I would break my life - I would stay at home and achieve nothing. I didn’t doubt myself and simply stopped talking to them, ”the girl says.
According to Christina, the mother and father had to work hard so that the big family did not need anything, so all the household chores were on her and she actually replaced the younger brothers of the parents.
“I knew it would be difficult, but I can handle it,” says Christina. In addition, fellow villagers stood up for her. Employees of the local administration vouched for the girl to be able to raise her six brothers and sister.
According to Christina, she went to custody every day all week and urged officials not to destroy her family. As a result, Christine was given a trial period of six months. The girl coped and in May 2018 she received unlimited custody of the children.
- © Photo from the personal archive
“The first two months were hard - Zhenya and Dasha were very young and did not understand where Mom and Dad had gone, and why now they have only me. The death of the parents hit the elders too, but they leveled at me. They saw that I did not give slack, I did not cry, and they themselves tried to be strong. Now the younger ones say that Mom and Dad are in the sky and are watching us, ”says Christina.
“All children are very diligent”
Now Kristina lives in Elizabethopolsky with only three brothers and a sister: Zhenya, Dasha, Alyosha and Valera. Three older brothers: Kostya, Andrey and Artyom graduated from school, rent an apartment and study in the city, forty kilometers from their native village.
- © Photo from the personal archive
“Each of us has his own room in the house. Guys come to visit for the weekend and always help. Of course, everyone plans to move to the city in a year. And then Andrei and Artyom will leave for the army, and Kostya alone will not cope. You still need to look after him, ”says Christina.
According to the girl, aunts on my mother’s and father’s lines help to cope with problems.
“They come to sit with the children when I need to go somewhere. Just recently, they were here too - they taught me to close compotes and preserves for the winter. There are a lot of apples, but I didn’t know how to twist, ”smiles Christina.
The guys go to school in the neighboring village of Yuzhno-Stepnoye. Christina herself takes the younger Zhenya to kindergarten. Valera is with developmental peculiarities, so since childhood he has been studying individually at school. In the South-Steppe secondary school RT said that all the children from the Yevtushenko family are very diligent.
- © Photo from the personal archive
“We know their whole family. The guys always do their homework, clean, well-groomed, never late. True, now only the youngest are studying with us. Seniors have already graduated, ”RT told the school.
But Christine herself had to quit her studies. Combining college with household chores failed.
“The college is 360 km from our village, and there is no correspondence education there. I had to pick up the documents. But in the future I plan to get an education in absentia in another place. Now I can’t - the youngest one will go to first grade next year. I’m doing it at home after the kindergarten, ”says Christina.
Friends, neighbors and strangers help
Christina does not work - all the time housework and children. They live on the money that a girl receives as a guardian. This is approximately six thousand rubles per child per month. Kristina puts aside some part to buy the necessary shoes and clothes for the children during the cold season - the children grow quickly.
So a winter jacket for one child will cost about 3-4 thousand rubles. The state also transfers benefits to children, but they can use this money only after they come of age.
“Friends and neighbors also help us. Sometimes strangers call and ask for the sizes of children's clothes. By the beginning of the school year, everyone bought backpacks. What is always lacking is stationery: pencils, notebook pens. It seems only bought, and no longer. Everyone wrote down, ”the girl says.
Rescues Yevtushenko and his subsidiary farm. The family holds cows, pigs, rabbits, hens, broilers, geese. Vegetables, according to Christina, are also their own - from the garden.
“And I'm in the garden all the days, and the guys come from school to help. There’s no time to sit still, ”explains Christina.
- © Photo from the personal archive
The girl’s main dream is to buy a car someday. So it will be easier for her to take people to classes, to go to the store and to the clinic if anyone gets sick. “But then, when we can move to the city,” Cristina dreams.
The administration of the South-Steppe rural settlement RT said that they were always in touch with the girl and were ready to assist if necessary.