Because the reality of Tamara's sacrifice...
is still a bit too overwhelming for me to process right now, I will simply tell you one story from our good-bye time with her. On Saturday, we spent several hours with Tamara complete with mashed potatoes, silver sardine-y fish, and lots of chocolate graham cracker truffle things. Tamara kept exhorting me to eat "more, more" I am as I sincerely tried to down this "un-Cindy-ish" feast that would have been challenging enough anyway, but at 11:00 in the morning was just about impossible ... for me. Katya, however, managed to down a lion's share and feed the remaining silver sardine-y fish to See-mon, a very fat cat who refuses to come near Katya, unless she is offering silver sardine-y fish.
So, after eating my "Thank you" portion, it was time to check out the mammoth suitcase Tamara had packed for Katya to bring to America. Because I felt it important that this sweet Babushka have a good sense of having sent Katya off well, I protested nothing. Finley kids, you will be happy to know that we did not bring home stuffed animals. On top of enough sweaters to clothe a kindergarten classroom, the 101 Dalmatians backpack was packed. Knowing that I wanted Katya to use this as her carry-on, I lifted it out. Tamara preceded to tell me about all the mittens she is sending for all the children, as well as a chocolate bar for each, and put the 101 Dalmatians pack back in. I just made a mental note to pull it out once Katya and I got back to OES.
But, there is no need to pull it back out. As Tamara continued to tell me about the various things in the suitcase, and asked me if I wanted "this" or "that," she disappeared into a small side room and brought out this:
I really had hoped to never see this again. Since it hadn't shown up when we were here in August OR October, I think it was a reasonable hope. However, at this point I'm guessing that it had just been put away for safe keeping, until now... So, my hope is that Tamara never looked closely enough at it to see that it isn't the pink floral backpack I thought I was buying in July 2008. My fear is that she knows exactly what it is and has the completely wrong impression of me - a mom who buys pink skull backpacks for her daughters. Please tell me that you don't think she ever closely examined this backpack. Please tell me that you don't think that she thinks that I buy pink skull backpacks for my daughters. I would really hate for her to think that ...
Since she really is one of my heroes ...