The Chest

My mother's mother, my grandmother, Ekaterina (Katherine) Pavlovna Popoff was my favorite person in the whole wide world.  She was a tiny little woman, barely 4 ft 10 inches, but she was mighty in her deeds.  Her husband used to call her his pocket wife, because she was so little.  He also used to always tell us that good things came in small packages.  Katherine was the mother of 2 girls.  She was always busy working and doing something.  She devoted her life to her family, her children and grandchildren and to helping others who were in need.   At the end of her life when she had so little, she still collected  money and made things for those who were worse off than her.  At one time she collected money and clothing to send to families in Europe who had nothing.  When people donated clothing that was not very nice, she would repair and fix the clothing until they looked like new.  She always taught me that it is important to help those who have less than we do.  She was patriotic and always voted in all of the elections.  She was proud to be and American and wanted to support her new government.  Baba Katya, as we all called her,  because Baba is the shortened form of grandmother in Russian and Katya because that is the affectionate way of saying Katherine in Russian, always taught us to never judge people and to love people from all walks of life and from all countries.  She always said that you will find both good and bad people in any group or country.

She led an interesting life with many stories.  I will write about one tonight.

Baba Katya's husband, my grandfather, Gherman Simonovich Popoff, was working in Mongolia.  He was in charge of a very large operation and had many workers under him.  When it was time to pay the workers, he was to pay them in gold.  A large chest was filled with the gold and it was to be taken by a group of Chinese men in a caravan, through the Gobi desert, to the area where the men were working.  Gherman asked his wife to go along and to oversee the caravan.  This brave,  little woman agreed to do it.  The trip was not easy.  She was the only white woman in a caravan of many Chinese men much bigger and stronger than her.  They would be traveling through the desert for many days.  The first day the leader of the caravan told her that she would be solely responsible for guarding the chest.  Katya agreed and did this by riding in the wagon with the chest in it.  At night she slept on the chest to keep everyone away from it and to protect it from robbery.  It is hard to imagine that she did that and that it actually protected the gold.  The men had so much respect for her, that they would not have dreamed of touching her or harming her in any way.  Imagine how easy it would have been for anyone to get rid of her and to take the gold.  And yet, they did not.  She delivered the gold safely to her husband and to the workers.