home memorial

• home
• today
• act of terrorism
• justice
• report
• library
• memorial
• about us
• guestbook

Thank you for taking the time to report the following comment to the administrator of this site.
Please complete this short form and click the submit button to process your report.

Name:
E-mail
Reason for reporting comment

Comment in question

Arkady Gerasimov Written by Moscow School #1314, on 01-04-2011 06:02 I cannot believe that Arkady is gone from us!    He was always with us, he is still here, and always will be!    I remember when ‘Arkasha’ with his classmates took us out on a fieldtrip. It was our first one, and we were still little 8th graders who did not understand a thing. He was wearing a military uniform with what seemed to me back then was a huge backpack. He was big and confident and out in front, and he gave us confidence. We still did not know each other very well, but this big man added confidence to our every step! Along the way he got the car started by pushing it, and he joked and made everything fun as only he could! I knew for sure that everything would be great. Great, and a lot of fun, because in his heart there was more than enough warmth and kindness for all, even for those whom for the moment he did not know!    He always seemed big, as big as the sun on a summer day! His presence warmed everyone around him, and we basked in his rays! Whenever he appeared, there was always a genuine sense of joy and happiness, mixed with gratitude for being able to meet a ‘sun’ such as Arkady! Once we were going to go to an air show, but at the last minute everyone else said they could not go, and so I went to the designated rendezvous with this feeling that the outing was ruined. There, underneath a column, I found Arkasha. He was reading a book. He said that we would both have more fun without a lot of people in the way, and that is how it turned out. We spent a quite memorable day full of bright emotions and feelings and a colorful carnival of colors. All of this would never have been possible that day without this person!    He is a very good FRIEND! Whatever was going on, he would always run over and help, and do everything he could to solve any problem, and he did so with his characteristic irony, enthusiasm, and a real passion. So much so that sometimes it seemed that it was really his problem, no matter whose it was! Only he knew how to do this.    He gave us sparks from his gigantic heart, and the sparks that fell into our hearts began to sprout like a tree: a tree of thanks from us to him.      Written by Vladimir Khoteenkov, class of 2000.    ***    About Hare    I have been trying to do this for a while... And now I just do not know what to write... How can I write in the past tense about a person who still exists for me? Well, everyone who thinks that I am wrong can just forgive me, but I am going to write about him in the present tense!    First of all, for me Arkady is not Arkady, but HARE! He is kind of person who can come visit just after phoning and asking: “Can I come over?” As a rule, I see no reason to tell him no, though recently we have rarely seen each other.    What is ‘Hare’ like? He knows how to deal with anyone, and likes giving presents without occasion, simply because the weather today is nice.    I do not know how to describe him as a person at all. After all, he is an entire world. What reminds me of ‘Hare’? He was the first graduate I met on September 1st (at the start of classes ceremony), and he is probably the one who linked our classes. I cannot remember if we ever went on a single fieldtrip without him... It is somehow hard to imagine, but even if we did, I think he was with us in spirit.    I am trying to remember specific instances... I remember mostly funny things. When we were getting ready for 11th grade initiations, ‘Hare’ spilled water the noodle water on me, but instead of crying out in pain, I started laughing like crazy, and we laughed together. A while later, ‘Hare’ told me that he tried to do that to other people, but he never got the same result. He was upset, because he thought he had found the perfect way to make people laugh.    My favorite fieldtrip story was about how ‘Hare’ and Alla Alexeyeva at three in the morning were looking for her pills in our small 3-man tent. First, they woke me up, and then they turned everything upside down, later they could not get to sleep because the pills were right next to her the whole time.    Then there was that little ditty by ‘Ivasi’ (Ivashchenko & Vasiliev) that he slightly altered to better match reality: “Ach, Arkady Andreevich in stripes...”    It seems to me that my house has a bunch of things that are in one way or another connected with ‘Hare’. They are evenly spread about the entire apartment, but now it is difficult to say whether they were lent or donated.    I do not know how to finish this. I can tell these stories for hours, but when I try to write them down they lose their charm.    P.S.  I know that I am not rooted to my chair,  And that life has not driven me into a corner,  And it is out of the question that I drop this matter  But I am a little short of time...    Written by Natasha Vasilyeva, class of 2000.    ***    Arkady?    At first I did not know him personally, but this is a man to whom you need no introduction. You just get used to him, and learn about him. I just saw him, and I have no idea how it happened, but somehow it was as if we had known each other for ages.    ‘Hare’, ‘Sun’?    Later I got to know him better, after he had already finished school and found somewhere to work. He still came around, so solid looking in his jacket and coat. He was just like an adult, and working. I got scared: perhaps with his changed style he himself has changed? But no, he remained the same, and no matter how much his professional colleagues loved him, they could never change him.    ‘Arkasha’?    He was with me when I went to see 'Nord-Ost' for the first time, and we liked it so much! It was so beautiful, and it was such a wonderful evening.    But then it got frightening… and disturbing.    But we got through it. It could not be any other way, since he is forever and he is with us forever. He helped so many people and was ready to do anything to make things better for someone... We must go on, because he would want that everyone was okay.    It already seemed that everything had passed, but then Alena Nefedova called and said that Irina Chernina needed help. All the writings of his friends and other people, a bunch of photos and pieces of paper with handwritten messages, my God... I never thought that it would be so hard. After sitting half the day with Yevgeny Moroz back at the school, we did not even get half of it done. So back home, alone... All these people... How can there be so many that all love him?    Please excuse me for any silly mistakes that I may have possibly made. It is hard to write. For the hundredth time I struggle with this desire to cry, but I try to smile. After all, he loved it so much when people around him smiled, and he was always smiling himself.    Written by Lena Krasnova, class of 2000.