无畏的老奶奶

山东 孙启禄

贝加尔湖是世界上最大、最深的淡水湖。每年冬天，当湖面结冰时，无论需要去哪，已到耄耋之年的柳博夫·莫尔霍多娃都会穿上那双伴随她多年的溜冰鞋。

Lake Baikal in southern Siberia is the largest, deepest freshwater lake in the world.Every winter when the lake freezes over for half the year, Lyubov Morekhodova, who is in her eighties, puts on the same skates she's worn since she was young and glides across the ice wherever she needs to go.

Lyubov, or Baba Lyuba as she's called, has been using the ice to travel around her remote homestead for her entire life. As a child, she recalls skating about 2.5 miles each way to school and back. She once fell through the ice in January and narrowly escaped with the help of her classmates.

After raising her two children and working in a factory for almost 50 years, Baba Lyuba retired and now lives alone in a tiny cabin on the shores of Lake Baikal. Her children and five grandchildren rarely visit because they live five hours away by car, so her only company is her dogs, cows, and chickens. Luckily, she has the ice to help her feel free!

Every day, she skates a half hour each way to the local village to do her shopping. With temperatures often reaching lows of -40 degrees Fahrenheit, it's hard to imagine an woman in her eighties making this journey at all, much less every day! But Baba Lyuba insists that her daily skates are the secret to her long life span.

“People keep telling me I should slow down, but I just can't! ” she said with a laugh.“I don't have time to be bored. There's too much work to do.”

Whenever you're tempted to feel sorry for yourself, just remember this Siberian grandmother skating her way through her senior years! Baba Lyuba is a perfect reminder that we're only as old as we feel!

Reading Check

What is the most impressive personality of Baba Lyuba apart from fearless?

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