Maria's Story

by Robin Barratt

  We have promised Maria everything because you have promised this to us. Maria is so looking forward to starting a new life because you promised us, and Össur, and Jamie that you will fund this project yourself. Now what do we tell her, that you have changed your mind? Don’t you think this girl has had enough trauma and hardship in her life?

  From the very beginning, you asked us that you did not want any publicity over this and throughout we have respected your wishes. This has obviously prevented us from raising as much money as we could have done. We were also intending to make a wonderful documentary on Maria and her life and the help you had promised to give, which would have done so much good for both your charity and for Maria. But again you didn’t want to be involved and so we abandoned this idea. Also we never once called and disturbed you after our initial discussions, trusting your kind intentions. We have respected every one of your wishes as we genuinely believed you would personally help Maria and honor your promise.

  Now your assistant says it is doubtful you will.

  So everyone involved - Össur, Jamie, ourselves and of course Maria and her son must now just sit and wait until you might, or might not decide to help. And if you don’t, what happens? Has everyone’s kindness gone to waste and what do we tell Maria?

  This is fundamentally wrong, unfair and unkind. You cannot make false promises to someone in the situation like Maria’s.

  Russia is not like England and she will never have an opportunity to obtain good legs and thus change her life without our help.

  Is it that impossible for you to commit yourself regardless of the cost? The costs won’t be excessive anyway. We will negotiate good rates with the clinic in Moscow, and you have good contacts for the cosmesis in the UK.

  We understand you have many commitments and obligations, but it was you that called us, you that made these promises to us and to Maria.

  We have copied this e-mail to everyone involved in helping Maria as they should all have the right to know and understand the situation.

  As you know I am a writer and like you have travelled the world and seen many sad stories. Is this going to be another?

  We all await your reply.

  Three days later our benefactor telephoned me. She was so angry, shouting at me down the phone. How could I write such a letter, she yelled? She said it was all a big misunderstanding, and that she was indeed going to help as she had originally promised. I have to ask myself how such a call from her assistant was a ‘misunderstanding’? I am sure she didn’t just decide to make up the story and then call us that afternoon, thinking that might be a good thing to do. But I remained polite and civil as I still wanted her to help and I was still determined that she would fulfill the promises she made to Maria. But, above all, Inna and I still desperately wanted Maria to walk.

  Also, during that heated and awkward conversation, our benefactor then confirmed that she would be flying to Moscow from St. Petersburg and asked to meet Maria.

  I then emailed our benefactor, copying it to everyone else, saying how glad Inna and I were that it was just a big misunderstanding and thanking her once again of her pledge and commitment to help Maria. We also confirmed that she could meet with Maria the following week, while she was on business in Moscow and that Inna would also fly to Moscow to meet them both, making things much easier for everyone as Inna could translate, plus she was the only person that Maria really trusted. Inna and I were so broke, we had to beg, steal and borrow the money for Inna’s flights, but we were determined that this was going to happen.

  We had had so many disappointments we fully expected our benefactor not to turn up. After arriving in Moscow, Inna made her way over to the hostel where Maria lived, still not knowing whether or not our benefactor was going to come. Inna arrived at the hostel at about 11am and called Maria from the lobby. Maria was upstairs getting ready and a few minutes later came down to meet Inna. They hugged and kissed and Inna gave her some toys for her son and a couple of gifts for her. And then suddenly our benefactor called, she was in Moscow and on her way from the airport!! Nervously Maria and Inna went back up to her room and waited for her to arrive. Maria sat on the bed and wrote a message on a little card she was going to give our benefactor, thanking her for her help and her kindness. Inna got another call, our benefactor was in the lobby. Inna and Maria fussed around, quickly tidying up a little and then Inna rushed down to meet her. Inna felt nervous too, but immediately recognised her, immaculately dressed and looking beautiful, yet a little out of place in a run-down Moscow hostel lobby. She was with her female bodyguard and another lady called Sofia, who was going to help translate. As they all went upstairs to Maria’s room.

  Maria timidly opened the door to her room and nervously greeted everyone. She wasn’t sure what to say, but our benefactor took control and greeted her warmly and affectionately and sat on the chair opposite Maria. Sofia sat on the bed and Inna stood awkwardly next to Maria, holding her hand. There was little space in Maria’s room and it seemed a little cramped and everyone felt a little uncomfortable.

  As our benefactor chatted to Maria, there seemed to be lots of parallels between Maria’s life and her life; they both lived in abusive and unstable homes, they both had horrific accidents and they both had lived on the streets. Our benefactor spoke to Maria about Maria perhaps being an ambassador for other disabled in Russia as she could see in Maria a strength of character and personality and felt Maria was strong enough to lobby for change and fight for the rights of other disabled. Our benefactor also told Maria that she was willing to financially sponsor Maria for two or three months while she got off the streets and looks for normal work, away from begging. They talked about our benefactor’s contacts in Moscow and that she might be able to help Maria find a job, and she said she would even pay Maria while she re-trains. These were all promises our benefactor made to Maria, there and then.

  After chatting for a while, they went downstairs to a typically Russian café for something to eat, and sat around a small, slightly unsteady table being stared at by other Russians sitting nearby. As they sat and ate and chatted a little more, Maria said she would one day like to wear high heels.

  It was time to go and, as they said their goodbyes, Maria gave our benefactor the card and our benefactor gave Maria an envelope with the equivalent to about £100, and her address back in the UK. She also turned to Inna and, to Inna’s surprise, handed her an envelope with the money for her flight. Inna walked with them to the car as Maria waited in the hotel lobby doorway, watching them leave and waving goodbye. Inna sat with Maria in the café for an hour or so afterward, chatting about the many things only women find to chat about. Maria had found a friend in Inna.

  ***

  After the meeting with Maria we were really happy that things had got back on track and that everything was panning out perfectly. Our benefactor had now met Maria and we felt sure that everything was now going to go ahead as planned without any further ‘misunderstanding’ or problems. Jamie had also met Maria and confirmed that new limbs could be fitted. I wrote an e-mail to Jamie telling him of the meeting and everything that had happened and that once we had Maria off that platform and walking we could go on to help others like Maria.

  Jamie replied with confirmed dates as to when he could manage to get back to Moscow and finally fit Maria’s new legs. Things were now progressing quickly, in only seven months Össur had assessed Maria and her needs and put into motion a plan to finally get her walking. We now had to arrange everything else including Jamie’s accommodation and flights. We knew that he wasn’t at all fussed as to where he would stay, he just needed somewhere to crash at the end of the day. We wrote to our benefactor explaining things so far and Jamie had made contacts in Moscow and found a Russian prosthetic company that he could work with who had good facilities and a workshop. He had made contact with a man named Andrey, one of the managers, and had written to him asking fo
r their assistance.

  We then heard from back from our benefactor. She seemed pleased that everything was moving forward and gave us her new contact telephone number, just in case we needed anything. She said she was really busy but we should let her know costs as soon as we could, and she would make sure she gets the money to us. This was great news.

  A few days later Andrey replied to Jamie confirming that they would indeed be willing to help. Their company would allocate their own time and their own expenses in order to work with Jamie, Össur and Maria. This was more great news as firstly Jamie now had a confirmed workshop as it would have been quite difficult and time consuming trying to find somewhere suitable and secondly, it would now save our benefactor even more money as she would not have to pay for the use of a workshop either; we always tried to save money as and when we could and thought that the more we saved the more willing she would then be to pay for the other things that we needed, such as the clinic for Maria to stay in while she was being fitted, her medical expenses, Jamie’s, Inna’s and Maria’s expenses etc. We spoke to our benefactor on the 4 August when she yet again confirmed everything and that she would get us the money we needed.

  A few weeks later we asked our benefactor to send us £1000 to book Jamie’s flight, find accommodation and help with other daily costs such as food, travel backwards and forwards to the clinic and workshop etc. We would also have to pay for Maria’s medical expenses. We would, of course, provide receipts for everything. Our benefactor refused, she refused to send us any money whatsoever. She said, so that there would be no confusion, she would pay for Inna’s flight and that the price should be agreed in advance and paid direct to the airline. She said she had had too many experiences (of precisely what, we weren’t sure) with too many people to personally fund anything. She said she would pay for Maria’s costs at the clinic, direct to the clinic which must also be agreed in advance, however it would be very difficult to have given her precise costs of the treatment and physiotherapy in advance until the Medical Centre had properly assessed Maria. She told us she would not pay for any other unnecessary costs and ended by saying she hoped that we were pleased with what she had done for us so far.

  From her initial promises that she would do everything to get Maria walking again, our benefactor was now not going to pay for Jamie’s flight, his accommodation or food, as well as expenses for Jamie, Inna and Maria during their stay in Moscow. These costs she now considered unnecessary. All she had done for us up to that point was to pay for Inna’s flight and the only thing she had done for Maria was give her a very small amount of money. Maria was still begging, and she had the audacity to say that she hoped we were happy with all that she had done for us so far! Once again our benefactor had caused us so many upsets. How could we afford to pay for Jamie’s flight, his accommodation and all the expenses? It was simply impossible. We just didn’t have the money ourselves. We were completely stuck. We didn’t know what we were going to do and were going to have to try and raise as much money as we could in following two weeks, but we just didn’t know how. A couple of days later we heard from our benefactor’s assistant, saying that she would now pay for Jamie’s flight, as apparently she now considered that as essential. But Jamie still ended up paying for the flight from his own pocket, he never sent her the receipt and they never asked for it.

  During our fund-raising efforts, we made contact with Tania, based in London. She was Russian and ran a small charity for Russians. She promised to help us all she could. She wasn’t at all wealthy but kindly sent £100 to help pay for Jamie’s expenses and accommodation. She had also asked her brother to contact us. Her brother lived in Russia and knew of somewhere comfortable in central Moscow where Jamie could stay. He was close friends with Olga Nikolaevna Adamishina, wife of former Ambassador to Great Britain and Trustee of British Charity; Russian Arts Help. She spoke fluent English and had a spare room which she gladly agreed to let Jamie use for the duration of his stay. Inna called her from the UK a few days before she and Jamie were due to fly to Moscow and arranged everything. It was such short notice but Olga was so helpful and so kind. We promised Tania that we would give the £100 she gave us to Olga as a thank you, but when we offered it to Olga, she refused. Instead we gave it to her charity.

  Aside from the problems Inna and I now had financing the rest of Jamie’s trip, everything was now more or less in place; Össur would be providing all the prosthetic components free-of-charge including the liners, knees and feet plus the connecting adapters. They will also provide the prosthetic service free of charge and Jamie’s time in Moscow for that week. The use of the workshop will also be free in co-operation with Jamie’s local business partner Andrey. Össur will also cover the cost of prosthetic materials used for the prostheses; all the materials used to produce the sockets and check sockets that are used as a half-way stage to confirm the comfortable fitting of the definitive sockets. Jamie’s Moscow contact had also agreed to work with Maria free of charge on an on-going basis after the initial fitting, as it is common for the prosthetic knee settings to need adjusting slightly to allow for the stiffness of the foam and skin. And lastly we had found free accommodation. A few days before Inna was due to fly, Sonya sent her flight tickets.

  So far our multi-millionairess benefactor had done virtually nothing.

  Inna called Maria a few days before she was due to leave just to make sure everything was fine. Unusually she managed to get through the first time, but strangely Maria had seemed to have changed; she was not the Maria Inna knew and had spoken to many times before, or the Maria she had seen with Jamie. She sounded very unhappy. Somehow, she had it in her mind that there was no way Jamie could do anything for her in just one week. The Russians had taken months, if not years to provide her with limbs that were so uncomfortable and so horrible that she never wore them, so what could Jamie do in just one week? According to Maria, nothing! She had it in her mind that the legs Jamie was going to fit were going to be just as awful and... she said she didn’t want them after all. Inna asked Maria how she knew what they were going to be like when she hadn’t even seen them. Apparently she had met Andrey at his Moscow office a week earlier as Jamie asked him to measure her limbs again for the final fitting. Andrey had shown Maria some components, but the components he had shown her were not the components Jamie was bringing with him and this sometimes stubborn, tough, streetwise woman had it in her mind that they were exactly the ones that she will be having and Inna was finding it impossible to get her to change her mind. She also said she didn’t want to stay in the clinic. She hated the thought of staying there alone. Inna didn’t really know what to say and asked her to please wait and not to make any decisions until they met and she can see everything for herself. Maria sounded strange and certainly not her usual optimistic, positive self. What had really happened to change her mind? What had been said to her? Had anyone influenced her? It was hard to tell on the telephone, but when Inna hung up she was worried that, after everything that had happened so far, things were not going to work out as planned.

  ***

  On Friday the 20 August 2004, Inna flew to Moscow and was met at the airport by her parents. Jamie was due to arrive on Sunday 22 and so, before what was going to be an extremely exhausting and difficult week, Inna spent a nice relaxing day at home with her family. They all had dinner together, drank a little wine, made various toasts and generally had a nice time.

  On that Sunday Inna woke up early and make her way from Zelenograd, about 30 miles north of Moscow, to Domodedovo airport about ten miles south of Moscow. She had to take the minibus from Zelenograd to Rechnoy Vokzal metro, at the very end of the Green metro line. She then had to catch a metro to Paveletsky railway station at metro Paveletskaya, on the circle line and from Paveletsky she had to take a train to the airport. It was a long, hot, uncomfortable three hour journey.

  She got there in plenty of time and waited for Jamie’s flight to arrive. It didn’t
take him long to get through Passport Control and Customs, Domodedovo airport is so much better, a lot more modern and much more efficient that Sheremetyevo, which was one of the reasons British Airways had moved there a couple of years previously. More and more Western airlines are moving to Domodedovo as it is as modern as any other smaller International airport and has a distinctive European feeling and service, which is totally opposite to the typically awful Russian service you get at Sheremetyevo [author’s note: Sheremetyevo airport has been totally revamped and is now an infinitely better airport than it was].

  Inna waved at Jamie as he walked through the arrivals gate. Everything seemed a little unreal; was Jamie was really finally arriving to complete something Inna and I had been planning for almost two years? From an initial conversation outside a grubby metro, here was Jamie in Moscow with a satchel full of components which could, quite possibly, change a person’s life, forever. Sitting in my little apartment in Norwich wondering about the coming week, I thought about Jamie and how many countries he had walked into with bags full of components and how wonderful he must feel being able to help so many. After losing his leg and also suffering terribly, he now travels around the world lecturing and consulting and helping hundreds and hundreds of people. By his own admission he says he wouldn’t change a thing.

  Inna and Jamie caught the train back into Moscow and made their way to the apartment in which we had arranged for him to stay. Olga was still at her dacha (country house) but would be returning sometime during the week. She had spoken to Inna the day before and arranged to leave the keys with a neighbour. Sometimes people in Moscow can be so harsh and unkind and unhelpful, but sometimes they can be the complete opposite and do so much more than most people would ever think about doing in the UK. Olga hadn’t met Inna or Jamie, Inna had only had a couple of conversations with her on the telephone and yet she agreed to let Jamie stay in her apartment without any question or comment, even entrusting the keys to a neighbour. I don’t know many people in England that would be so willing, or trusting do this. The neighbour showed them around; Jamie’s room, the bathroom, the kitchen and where the tea and coffee were kept. He then bade them farewell, saying if they needed anything else just call, and left them the keys.