Age 52, from Kolomna, Russia

Lydia Alekseevna Chizhikova was born in Kolomna on October 23^rd, 1950.  ‘Lida’ was the only girl in the family.  After school she entered the radio-technical institute in Ryazan.  After graduation there she worked as a construction engineer at the KGM factory in Kolomna.  She worked for 29 years on many complex projects.  She was the leader of her group and was greatly valued and respected as a kind, attentive person who knew her specialty.  After her death her group decided to leave her workbench empty for a long time, placing only fresh flowers there each day.

We know Lida as a merry, cheerful, considerate, and remarkable person, always there at a difficult time.  There was no one with whom she had a quarrel.  She was able to share your worries and do a kindness without asking anything in return.  When her uncle had a stroke and lost the gift of speech, she cared for him for a long time.  We consider her greatest trait, however, to be her love of live and family, relatives, and friends.

Lida related to her family with great care, trying to protect it from problems and disappointments.  When she was offered a management position, which would mean a lot of work-related travel, she refused on behalf of her family.  Lida was a good wife and a beautiful mother.  To her daughter she was the wisest and closest friend and helper.  And to Lida her daughter Sveta was the same.

We were very close to ‘Lidunka’ throughout our lives.  She was always there, talking about various things, and we listened to her sage advice and shared our everyday difficulties and joys with her.  She was not just a relative to us by blood, but in spirit, and this is even more dear.

Lida was not indifferent to nature: she loved her garden, which was always maintained idyllically.  She loved to walk in the woods to collect mushrooms and berries.  There were many flowers at her house, some of which died after Lida’s death, as if sharing her lot.

While still a student she took excursions along the mountain streams in Karelia.  She loved to relax at the sea while sleeping in a tent.  The last time she vacationed at the sea, in August of 2002, Lida returned home with regrets, saying: “What if I never return here again?”  No one even thought that these words would be prophetic.

For her 52^nd birthday we got her tickets to the ill-fated show, which was to be for her the last.  Her loved ones tried talking her into taking tickets for a different date; the 23^rd was a workday.  She said, however, that then it would not be a real birthday present.

It was very bad weather that day, and the garage door lock just would not open.  Her husband said they should not drive to Moscow because of the bad roads, but, like a moth flies to the flame, so too did she strive to reach the play.  Thus she happened to be at ‘Nord-Ost’ in the theater on Dubrovka, with her husband Valerian, her daughter Svetlana, son-in-law Aleksandr, and her son-in-law’s mother Galina Vladimirovna.

It would be impossible to describe our feelings and worries when they first broadcast the seizure of the theater on Dubrovka on the evening of October 23^rd, 2002.  For those days we remained under huge pressure, calling the hotlines but never receiving the needed information.

Somehow Lida managed to call us on the evening of the 25^th.  She was quick and abrupt, asking us to fulfill a few requests for her as if bidding us farewell.  Even though she was by nature an optimist, her last words were: “We aren’t going to get out of here.”  Her daughter said that at the theater she kept everyone’s spirits up, helping them to make it through the adversities of the prevailing situation.

We did not find her among the living after the hostages were freed, and this is very difficult to get used to.  We miss her a lot, but “a friend does not die, they merely cease to be next to us.”

We will always remember her, remember and grieve.

Written by her relatives, the Ruskovs, Guskovs, and Tsarkovs.

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