Borik has hearing problems and has difficulty communicating with people. He is very upset by this, he looks very carefully at the movements of the interlocutor’s lips, trying to guess what is being said, however, the conversation ends usually with “yes”. Anyway, when there is a need to go to town for some business issues, Borik goes himself, his wife is a few years younger, but she is very sick.
Years ago, when they were very young, they fell in love, got married and stayed in the village. A few years later, they realized that they could not have children, they were sad, but they loved each other more than ever as much as each other and all their unborn children together. They settled down, earned their living, saw wars and grew old…
They met the last war when they both crossed the 80 anniversary threshold. They said goodbye to everything they had created for about 6 decades, with their hard work, sweat and tough hands…
Hanganak started operating on November 23 after the war was stopped. One of the priority tasks was to find single elderly people evacuated from the captured areas and include them immediately in the program. We learned about Borik and his wife, Mrs. Nargiz, from the staff of Hadrut social affairs department, who were still operating in Yerevan at the time. We found them in a basement of Sahyan Street in Stepanakert, shocked by what had happened and how they appeared in that place at the end of their life, without any hope for tomorrow…
They live together in that damp basement house without complaining. They answer all the questions with a guilty smile. You keep asking yourself, why that could have happened to them. What is their fault, being old, being helpless, being displaced and ending up in a humanitarian disaster?
Borik regularly comes to get the medicine for his wife. He says that he does not need any medicine, he asks for medicine available for Nargiz because she is very sick. There is so much love and care in his words and behavior that your heart is filled with the warmth of that boundless love. Be healthy, Mrs. Nargiz! God did not give you a child, but gave you such a loving and devoted soul…
Lina and Rebecca visited our elderly couple early in the morning. The unexpected visit confused Ms. Nagiz a little. She set a nice table for breakfast with what they had. She put the eggs to boil, and prepared two glasses for the drink that was on the table. Artsakh men have to drink a glass with the egg. The girls joked: “Mrs. Nargiz, you stay true to habits.”
In that modest and poor room, everything was in order. The smell of light dampness was everywhere. That room served as a dining room, as a bedroom, and as a kitchen. Everything was arranged so carefully that the girls found a place to sit and thought it served also as a living room. They gave the blankets received from the United States to Mrs. Nargiz, reassuring once again their need in that cold room.
Mrs. Nargiz’s blood pressure was a little high, she did not have time to take her medicine yet. She hurriedly took the medicine out of the carefully arranged box and had it, indicating that she was very disciplined. The girls smiled happily. Mrs. Nargiz invited them to have breakfast with them, but the girls had to visit other beneficiaries as well.
In that semi-dark, semi-cellar and damp room there is something bright that warms the visitors, does not let them despair and go crazy from the loss of the homeland in the widespread pain and sorrow…