Social housing and a social worker to help. How one of the oldest WWII veterans lives in the Vitebsk region
Egor Kuzmich was born in the village of Rosskiy Selets, Orsha district. The war found him in Ukraine, and Lieutenant Rozhansky's combat path ended in 1944 in the Baltic states. The former commander, then political instructor of a rifle platoon, has Orders of the Patriotic War of I and II degrees, medals "For Military Merit", "For Victory over Germany", and six jubilee medals.
In the post-war period, the front-line soldier worked as a teacher for 40 years, 27 of which as the director of the Volosovo Secondary School in the Tolochin district. A veteran of pedagogical labor. He and his wife raised three children and kept a large household plot.
After being widowed, Egor Kuzmich continued to live in the village of Volosovo, in a house without amenities. His two daughters and son live in the Minsk region; they are also elderly and unable to look after their father.
The veteran's children appealed to the district executive committee with a request to provide him with social housing.
The housewarming took place last autumn. So, Egor Kuzmich met the first birthday in the new century of his biography in a cozy apartment located on the first floor of a house in a quiet microdistrict of Tolochin.
The pensioner is cared for by a social worker with 10 years of experience, Elena Shpilevskaya, and is visited by the chairman of the district veterans' organization, Galina Strakhovskaya.
– I visit every day, I cook, feed, and do laundry. For his age, my ward is in good shape, – states the social worker.
Egor Kuzmich is satisfied with his current living conditions.
– If it weren't for illnesses, it would be wonderful. I've become old, I can't see or hear well. I fight helplessness with poems and songs of my own composition. Conversations with my assistant also help. I am glad that my children visit me often, I have many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, – he says.
When asked how to reach 100 years of age, he replied:
– While you have the strength, you must work, no matter what, approach life with optimism, have normal living conditions, and also – do not smoke, do not abuse alcohol, and do not harbor malice. That’s the whole secret.