Page 38 - LIfesOuttakes4

grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

The children hadn’t known they would be taken

away. She said that her best friend lived right next door,

and the night Tatiana’s grandmother put the Bible away for
the last time, Tatiana heard banging on the neighbor’s

door, some screams, and yelling. The next day, her friend,
eyes red and still crying, told her that they had taken her

grandmother. Her friend said her family was all angry at

her, and that her father said the men would take her

grandmother and send her to a camp in Siberia where she

would surely die.

Tatiana felt a horrible feeling, knowing that she had

almost done the same thing to her own grandmother. She

said her friend never did see her grandmother again, and

she became quiet, and withdrawn, and was distrustful of

everyone.

Tatiana tried to apologize to her own grandmother,

but if her grandmother ever pulled the Bible out again, it

was never while Tatiana was around. However, just before

her grandmother died, Tatiana came home from college for

a short visit, and the old woman came to her. She handed

her something wrapped in a blanket, and told her that it

33