My grandmother..

.. is convinced that drinking water is not good for your health.

.. is convinced that five tablespoons of butter on a plate is, in fact, good for your health.

.. says adding sunflower oil gives food all of its taste.

.. has lived through two dictatorships.

.. recycles, composts, repurposes, and burns all of her garbage, so her household is completely waste-free

.. does not turn on hot water in the summer

.. does not turn on hot water in the spring

.. does not turn on hot water in autumn

.. winter? yep. still not hot water.

Since May 2017, my grandmother has lived alone, in a large house with bright cerulean windows, on a quiet street in a small town in the southernmost tip of Russia. Before that, she lived with her husband, a soft-spoken man, missing two fingers (and one thumb), whom I had known for every year of my life and who raised me as his granddaughter, though I never even knew his last name