the plotki magazine (pdf) - Moving Baltic Sea

← S T O R I E S F R O M T H E S E A S I D E 〈 〈 〈 〈 〈1.end of Estonia. “Why did your family keep the house afterthe Perestroika years?” I asked five St. Petersburgfamilies in Narva-Jõesuu.A Long and Hard Procedure: Lidia Verb and herHusband Michail (1.)A tidy fence circles a well-set brick-red country housebuilt in the 40ties and 50ties of the 20th century. Twofamilies (both from St. Petersburg) live here in summertime.I find my way to the remoter part of the building.Lidia waits for me. She is a gay and cheerful old lady thatlikes to dress up and to make a fuss about everything. Herhusband, Michail, has grown a paunch and grumbles but it doesn’t prevent him from being a tender friendto his wife, to dedicate poems to her on birthdays andnot only then. He is a lecturer on aesthetics in St. PetersburgPedagogical University. At first Lidia asks meto keep the interview a secret from Michail but later shecalls him to narrate several details and he willingly obeys.Lidia: We bought the house by good fortune. In thesummer of 1975 I took a holiday in Sillamäe (a smallindustrial town about 10 km from Narva-Jõesuu), thetime in the beach resort was paid for by reading publiclectures in Narva (a bigger town not far away fromNarva-Jõesuu). There, in the resort I met my formerstudent Valentine. She intended to sell her part of acountry house in Narva-Jõesuu and amiably allowedme to pay it off over nine years (big sums of moneyrarely happen in our family). However it did happen,the house became ours. We haven’t changed anythingin the floor plan; only light renovations were made.Our part of the building consists of a bedroom, sittingroom and two verandas; the first floor belongs totallyto our neighbours. There is also a wooden cottage onthe territory that we have recently reconstructed.I have liked Narva-Jõesuu since the first day theview of the seaside, pines and fir-tree that grow just onthe territory. But my two daughters, Ira and Lena, didn’tunderstand me. Only when Iliusha, my grandson, wasborn in 1977, they started to come here. The neighbourswere discontent because the child cried he was justa two-month-old baby by the time. Later, when threemore children were born, our limited home space49