“I feel neither good, nor bad. I feel nothing. My only son and husband lie motionless in the cold earth of the cemetery… and here I am within these four walls,” whispers Grandma Lamara barely audibly, wiping her dry eyes. Not a single tear has been left in 17 years – she’s cried it all out. She cries, crying from within, shrouded in darkness. She wants to die, to be near those she has lost, but death seems to avoid her, and condemns her to endless torment.

Mariam is sick with all the diseases of the world! There isn’t a single healthy spot on the small, tormented body of this unfortunate child! She was born with multiple diseases: everything hurts the girl! Her liver was located in the intestine, she has multiple heart defects, an open arterial duct, urinary tract infection, pneumonia, multiple rib fractures… She spent 6 months in the intensive care unit. She fought for her life, battled with death, and survived. Her mother was told that the girl is under God’s protection because children like her usually never survive.

If you want to curse a man, just tell him: “I wish your children were sick. And that’s it – he’ll be the most miserable person on the planet. “I don’t know how I find the strength to live, how I manage not to go crazy.” I think God gives strength to mothers who have sick children. I have two sons and both are sick. Gabriel, 5, and Lasha-Giorgi, 18-month-old. Gabriel has cerebral palsy – he can’t move or do anything on his own. Every month we lie in the hospital or in a rehabilitation center, and Lasha-Giorgi, a martyr, has been in an intensive care unit since birth, hooked up to machines. I haven’t even taken him in my arms, haven’t hugged him. He probably thinks he doesn’t have a mother.”

“If I die today, my grandson will die tomorrow, or maybe he will be buried alive with me, because nobody wants him but me! Nobody wants him… his mother left him, and his father left him. They left their sick child and found happiness elsewhere” – says Malardo and hides her eyes. She is ashamed for Soso’s mother and the father. Who needs a sick man? And they are still young, they can give birth to new and healthy children!

“I am dead, but there is only one difference between a dead man and me: I am not yet lying in a cold grave, I have not yet been covered with black earth. I’ve been chained to my bed for over 20 years, I can’t move my legs, I can hardly move my arms, but I still can’t get used to this state! I dream all the time that I walk, swim in the river, play football with my friends, but when I open my eyes, I try to move my leg and arm, but can’t do anything … It hurts me to realize that it was just a dream. I feel dreary – as if a big ball gets stuck in my throat and suffocates me. It feels like I had become a hostage of my body,” says 50-year-old Mamuka Solomnishvili. Tears come to the man’s eyes. He tries to hide them, but you still hear despair in his every word.

Мarina: The pain would not go away even for a second. Pieces of flesh are already falling off me. I’m all rotten. My skin festers and bleeds. I could not even imagine that anyone could endure such pain. The only thing I dream about is to die. Death seems so sweet to me. I don’t want my son to see his mother decompose before his eyes.” Help me at least die with dignity! Please don’t leave my boy alone in this cruel world! He must study. Perhaps these are my last words!