Aunt Luciya as we call her in Russian is one of our more vocal neighbors. One of our first encounters with her happened in the winter when Timothy was young. She began yelling at us for not bundling him up enough. We have always taken her criticism light heartedly and over time we have developed a good relationship with her.

Luciya is crippled with a bad leg and a hand which is pretty much limp and very deformed. She has had a hard life. Her son disappeared several years ago and there has been no word from him since. She still holds out hope that he is alive.

Everyday Luciya walks her dogs about the courtyard. The kids love them and are always trying to touch and play with them.

Tonight Aunt Luciya let the kids each walk one of her dogs. What a blast they had walking them about the courtyard. Finally we got everybody together on the bench for a quick picture. With happy heart and smiles on their faces Timothy and Abby waved goodbye to Aunt Luciya and her dogs and came in for dinner.