"It would be great to meet with the same company again!" A Vitebsk centenarian celebrated her 100th birthday

Residents of Ruba, unaware of the reason for the large and festive gathering near house №18 on Tsentralnaya Street, thought it must be a wedding!

Amateur artists from the local House of Culture in beautiful, bright costumes, musicians, children with flowers, local authorities represented by the head of the village executive committee, Andrey Burdo, and more and more guests kept arriving: Deputy Head of the Zheleznodorozhny District Administration, Natalya Lepeshkina, and Head of the Department of Ideological Work, Culture, and Youth Affairs, Karolina Bolshakova, Head of the District Department for Labor, Employment, and Social Protection, Elena Sharay, representatives of the veterans' organization, television, press, and neighbors...

In reality, the apartment where the remarkable jubilee celebrant, Anna Ivanovna Surganova, currently lives with her daughter, was hosting so many guests at once: on May 14th, she turned, no more, no less, than 100 years old. She twirled so easily with the ensemble of singing women, applauded so enthusiastically the poetic ode from the schoolchildren, and rejoiced at every gift, that it was hard to believe: not long ago, Anna Ivanovna, having fallen ill, was on bed rest.

Perhaps this is the nature of our Slavic woman: the more fate tests her, the stronger she becomes! Anna Ivanovna, born in this very village of Ruba in 1914, survived revolutions and wars, but perhaps the most devastating in her life was the Great Patriotic War: her husband Stepan Maksimovich, who went to the front from the very first days, went missing, she was forcibly taken to work in Germany with her family, then she lost both children and grandchildren. And she worked for half her life. And she only retired at 70 – from the medical unit of lime plant No. 1, where she was an ordinary laundrywoman. In general, she had to be anyone, but the most interesting thing is that immediately after the war, Anna Ivanovna worked as a bricklayer, built almost all the houses in her native village, and since they were heated with firewood, this small, nimble woman also laid stoves. Today she is happy with everything: her relatives are near her, and she receives a good pension with all the due supplements, as a former prisoner and as a pensioner who has passed the 80-year mark. Well, she doesn't feel a hundred years old. And she treats the folk belief that those born in May suffer all their lives with the same humor as her own anniversary. Very pleased with the celebration, Anna Ivanovna also wished all the guests good health upon parting and expressed hope that it would be good to meet with the same company more than once!

Natalia Drozdova, "Vitbichi"