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Chapter 11 cont.
“Lena its here” Yulia said standing in front of a large marble headstone. It was her Dad’s grave. She read the headstone, he had died last November, nearly five months ago. Oleg Volkov, loving husband of Larissa, 1950 – 2006. No mention of him being her loving father. Had he really despised her in the end and if so why had he left her all that money? She felt herself shiver as reality finally hit home that her Dad lay underneath the ground where she was standing, she felt physically sick.
Yulia racked her brain trying to recall what she had been doing the day he had died but she drew a blank as her days on the streets mostly blurred into one. All she knew was that she should have been there with him. To know he had died before they had managed to patch up their differences broke her heart and she was once again filling up with tears. Then she heard a soothing voice in her ear and felt two warm arms wrap around her waist from behind.
“Hey, I know this is hard but you just take your time.” Lena was greeted by a wall of silence maybe she shouldn’t have come here with Yulia after all this was a very personal issue which she should let Yulia deal with in her own way.
“Do you want me to leave you alone for a while?” Lena eventually asked.
“No” Yulia placed her hands on top of Lena’s which were still around her waist and pulled Lena’s arms even more tightly around her “I need you here Lena” she said turning her head to look Lena in the eyes.
Lena didn’t move. “That’s ok,” She nodded and whispered before simply resting her head on Yulia’s shoulder enjoying their closeness.
After a while Yulia opened the large bag she had brought with her and pulled out a bouquet of white lilies. She placed them on the grave and knelt down. When Lena had suggested that she should come here she had thought it was a bad idea but now she was there she felt better now that she could say a proper goodbye, it was the least she owed her Dad.
Yulia started to talk out loud as if he were still around to hear her while Lena just watched her closely listening to her heartfelt plea for forgiveness. “Dad, I’m so sorry I let you down,” Yulia paused struggling to catch her breathe, “please don’t think I ever stopped loving you I never did and I never will. I just had to do it Dad because I was…”
Yulia hesitated remembering she had never told Lena the reason she had fallen out with her parents, she wasn’t prepared to tell her yet. “If it wasn’t for you,” she continued her voice hoarse, “I would never have had the guts to do anything or be anything, I got my degree in the end you know, all because you gave me so much love and support. It meant so much to me to make you proud, and even now you are gone I promise I won’t let you down again, I’ll make something of myself.” she finished on a determined and optimistic note.
Yulia stopped and stared at the grave once more before getting to her feet all her memories flooding back. Oleg Volkov had been a fighter, a man who was proud and strong who had worked hard for his family and had given Yulia as much as he had to give. The adoring expression he always used when he had looked at her would be forever engraved in her head; that would never die. He had loved her no matter what her mother had told her she felt it now she was at his resting place, it was like he was watching her there at his graveside, she felt he finally understood.
When Yulia looked behind her she could see that Lena’s cheeks were tear stained much like her own and they both shared a knowing look before respectfully standing side by side in front of the grave until Yulia moved to leave. Her eyes lingered momentarily on the gravestone, which bore her father’s name as she recalled what he had said to her on her first day at University, it reverberated around her head. “This is just the start for you Yulia, you have a gift, please do not waste what is a god given talent.”
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