In recent days, I stopped by a hospital in west Rostov and what reached out and grabbed me was the graffiti, the hospital graffiti, of all things. Care for a first-hand look? It might just grab you too.
Here we are at Maternity Hospital #20, at the entrance to the Department of Birth. (Click photos to enlarge.) Above the door a proud new daddy wrote, Sveta, thanks for the daughter, Sasha! 24 Aug 2006 (Maga). Another papa wrote left of the door, Tanya, thank you for Maks. P.S. Vova F. I love you!!! Hmmm. . . that one's extra interesting. For one thing, the "P.S." is written in English. And then one can only imagine the contribution beloved Vova F. might have made. . .
Oh, let's rewind a bit here. Earlier that afternoon, I caught a bus to west Rostov to visit sister Lyda and little Elizaveta. Later on, I mentioned wanting to get over to Maternity Home #20, because it's in the area. Lyda said, Oh, we're to be going right past it after bit when we run some errands. How about we all go together? And so we did. It was just a 15-minute walk and Liza got pulled along in the sled, as per the local custom.
The hospital complex is there on the left and the far building of red brick is Maternity Hospital #20. And that's building I was hoping to photograph.
Getting closer, there toward the left is the Department of Birth. What's special about this hospital is that a little boy was born there several years back and then adopted by a great family in the US of A. Some months ago, his mama Kimberly, wrote and asked if I could possibly find the hospital and get some photos of it. So there's the scoop.
Oh, here we are at the entrance and under the sign which says, literally, Birth House #20. Well, that pesky letter Д has fallen off the word дом, for house. But there's more fun graffiti above the door in red: Lena (is) Best, it says, a combination of Russian and English. Bet you knew that already. ;)
Now here's an especially fun note: Above the windows, in white is written, Valya, thank you for Vika (Sanya) 30 June, 2009. (Just for the record, Sanya would be the proud papa and Vika is short for Victoria. Valya, the mom's name is short for Valentina.) Oh, but the energetic daddy Sanya wasn't done yet. . .
Apparently he hopped up on the roof there and repeated his joyful announcement on the wall, left of the chimney.
Here's my favorite: To the right of the white heart is written, Julia, thank you for daughter Alina, (signed) Ruslan. He used diminutives forms for both daughter and Alina so they could be translated sweet daughter or dear Alina, for instance. But I had to smile because that's very close to Aileena (Айлина), the Russian version of my name.Well, I had no idea that a visit to Maternity Hospital #20 would involve such amusement. Thanks to dear Kimberly for the opportunity to learn more about local birth announcements. And how about you, dear blog reader, how did you go about announcing the birth - or adoption - of your child? Did you consider painting your joy on the hospital?
2 comments:
The hospital where our granddaughter was born has a chime rung at the baby's delivery, so throughout the day, while waiting, we'd hear ding-ding-dong and know another baby had entered the world. As the new family leaves to go home, hand prints and a foot print are left on the walls with the name and date. The hospital used silver and gold paints so there are all these sweet footprints helping to walk you out the door!
"P.S." is written NOT in English,but in Latin.
"Post scriptum" is the Latin expression.
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