In Minsk, at the National Academic Grand Opera and Ballet Theatre, the winners of the "Woman of the Year" competition were honoured. Valentina Kritskaya from the village of Anoshki, Lepel District, was among the top ten finalists out of fifty-two. She won in the nomination: "For contribution to the spiritual and moral revival of society".
Guests have increasingly begun to visit the small village of Anoshki, far from the beaten paths, where Valentina Ivanovna Kritskaya has been living for almost forty years. Both foreigners and local tourists come. One even asked to stay with them for a couple of weeks, to relax in the summer. Let them come, guests are always welcome, and there is enough space. Anoshki is a beautiful place – there is a forest and a lake nearby. You can swim and gather mushrooms and berries if you are not too lazy to collect them. Baba Valya has a five-year-old grandson, Pashka, who is not lazy; in the morning, before dawn, he gets up and goes for mushrooms and berries, and in a couple of hours, he can gather a three-liter jar of blueberries.
The guests are attracted to this rich and interesting region not only by the lake and the forest but, first and foremost, by the people who were born and raised here, who have preserved, and perhaps even multiplied, those wonderful folk traditions that adorned the lives of their parents and grandparents.
Valentina "married off Tereshka" in her native Perakhodtsy, where she was born and grew up in a hardworking peasant family, always busy with household chores. They had a cow and pigs. All of them needed to be looked after. She learned to milk the cow at the age of eight. The pigs were driven to pasture a kilometer away, to the former manor yard. Oaks grew there, and there were plenty of acorns and sorrel.
Chicks were hatched, and her mother would sit by them all summer, guarding them from crows. Her mother had no time for songs or games, as she was raising ten children. She wove and spun. The younger ones went to evening gatherings. The nimble little Valechka also didn't forget to show up where the accordion played and the youth danced. The little girl was seated in the house on a chest, from which she could see everything. Dancing was not a difficult skill to learn; she mastered it quickly and soon began to entertain others and herself.
Valentina grew up, and went to study in Minsk to become a painter-plasterer. After finishing vocational school, she stayed to work in the capital. But not for long. Her father died, and her mother was left alone with her huge household, with tiny children like peas, and inconsolable widow's grief. Valentina had to return home to support her mother. She temporarily got a job in the reserve's canteen, then worked as a postwoman in Lepel, and hurried to her mother on weekends, where, with
Woman of the Year
She immersed herself in the daily routine. But Valentina never forgot about songs amidst those worries, as her voice did not fail her. She would work, and then sing her favourite: "Oh, the grey horse is running...". Song helped her to live, and it is not for nothing that they say that not only optimists love life, but life also loves optimists.
The cheerful, joyful girl was immediately noticed by a young, dashing suitor from Anoshki, at whose relative's place she was lodging in Lepel. And less than a year later, he took her as his wife and brought her to his homeland. Since that memorable seventy-third year for her, they have been living with Vladimir, earning their bread and raising children, taking care of the well-being in their home and not forgetting about songs.
Valentina has known this ritual since childhood, but they started to regularly "marry Tereshka" annually about fifteen years ago at the Veleushchyna club. In ninety-five, Zinaida Mazheyka came from Minsk, travelled through the villages, gathered local enthusiasts, cheerful dancers and singers. They filmed a movie about them. Since then, the folklore ensemble has been performing: Valentina Kritskaya, Katerina Kandybayla, Sofia Kuzmich, Nina Milchanina. They have performed in many places: they performed in Minsk, and travelled to Vitebsk for "Slavianski Bazaar". And, of course, in their native Lepel region, they know how to host guests with dignity and delight them with more than just "lazy" draniki.
And recently, our modest merrymaker from Anoshki unexpectedly soared to the very "orbit". Seeing our heroine – cheerful, joyful, lively, you wouldn't immediately think that you are facing a person with a difficult fate. She gave birth to nine children, who are now her support and help in life. But two are already gone, they tragically died. She survived a fire during which the house burned down and her son died. It is impossible to console a mother's grief, but one must live on, for the sake of the children, for the sake of the seven grandchildren she has.