How Some Guys Helped a Former Music Teacher and Changed Her Life in 6 Months

The project “The Word of the Man” is almost 2 years old and its description on YouTube is very short, “The mission of the channel is to inspire people and do good things.” Roman and his cameraman Dmitriy go around Moscow and to nearby towns to help poor families, retired people, and people with disabilities, and they film everything they do.

We at <strong>Bright Side were really impressed with the kindness and warmth in all the videos, but one story shook us to the core. We will try to tell it using the words of the guys themselves.

We bought some food to give to pensioners. We were sure that it wasn’t as much of a help, as it was a symbol of attention. But everything changed when we met the person we are going to tell you about.

When we met Natalya, she almost couldn’t see anything, she could barely walk, and was forced to look for food in the garbage.

In the past, Natalya Alexandrovna (62 years old) was a music teacher and an art teacher. She can play the piano and the accordion.

We were driving in the evening when we saw a person looking for something in a dumpster. And we had a bag with food. We went up to the person and we honestly thought it was someone insane. But it was a very normal woman, an ex-teacher.

In 2018, her older daughter Olga committed suicide. The young woman got a loan for $4,500 and couldn’t pay it back. Natalya was the bondsman and now every month she has to pay $120 as a payment for the loan, so she only has $60 a month that she can spend.

She has a younger son who is 32 years old and the stress he went through in his childhood made him epileptic. He sleeps a lot and doesn’t go outside very often. He lives with his mother in their small apartment.

Natalya has tried to find a job, but after her hip surgery, she has trouble walking. She has eye problems — one of her eyes doesn’t see anything, and the other sees things very badly.

She doesn’t drink or smoke and she has never had these destructive bad habits.

We talked to her a little bit about her past, about music, and about who her favorite composer was. When we were leaving, we gave her $75 and she told us that she wouldn’t waste this money. And we had no doubts about that. After the first time we saw her, we only had ideas but didn’t have a clear plan on how to help her.

A little later, we returned to learn more about Natalya’s story.

We brought her a lot of food, that would last a long time. We went to her house, but we had to stay outside because the smell was unbearable. When we brought the food, we found out that she hadn’t had electricity for more than a year. It was turned off because she couldn’t pay the bills.

Natalya said that after paying for the loan and her bills, she only has $30 for the rest of the month.

For 11 years, she worked at a kindergarten, then she went to work at a school and spent 13 years there. Several years ago, Natalya had cancer and she had to be away from school for 4 months. She went back to work after her treatment, but she was bald and nobody recognized her. When we asked her if she still communicated with any of her students, she said she didn’t want to place her burden on anyone.

She said that her life went south when she found that her husband had been cheating on her. She couldn’t forgive him. She was left alone with 2 children, and she raised them, worked, and her life was still moving forward.

This photo is 20 years old. This is Natalya with her children and hopes for a good future.

In 2018, her older daughter Olga took out a loan and couldn’t pay it back. Natalya doesn’t know where the money is, but according to her, she would need another lifetime to pay it back.

When we started filming, the debt for the electricity was $170 and the first thing we did was to pay it and make sure Natalya had electricity back on in her apartment.

She lived in very poor conditions and had to eat very old bread that mold on it.

We listened to her story, looked at the photos of her youth, and our brains just couldn’t believe that in the past, Natalya was a beautiful and impressive woman. We just couldn’t wrap our heads around it.

We wanted to help her in the best way possible. And we think we succeeded.

How we helped this teacher

In 6 months, we did a lot of work and we documented every step. Natalya appeared in 9 videos. We will try to tell you what we managed to achieve with the help of kind people.

Natalya after surgery, at a clinic in Moscow

So, we decided to solve her biggest problems:

• We paid the electricity bill, installed a new electricity meter, and paid $50 in advance. We also installed new power outlets.
• We took Natalya to a clinic to have her eyes diagnosed and find out if it was possible to restore her eyesight.
• We bought her a new fridge and a new electric stove.

But we realized that this was only the beginning if we wanted to make things right.

We brought Natalya to Moscow, rented her an apartment, and bought her new clothes. An eye surgeon, Arseniy Alexandrovitch, agreed to do 2 eye surgeries for free, even though they cost $3,000 combined.

According to the doctor, if the surgery was postponed for any longer, Natalya would have lost her eyesight within one or 2 years.

While Natalya was in Moscow, we prepared a surprise for her.

Also, we helped Natalya treat her teeth. It was quite a lengthy procedure that took about 3 months. During this time, we did a huge renovation to the teacher’s house. We replaced all of her furniture and bought her a new washing machine and some other appliances. Now she has everything she needs for a comfortable life. The best part of the apartment is a piano that Natalya will use to sing songs she’s composed by herself.

There was mold all over the old kitchen.

Before taking Natalya home, after her treatment and recovery, we took her to a beauty salon in order to complete her transformation. The artists did her hair, nails, and makeup — and she looked like a totally new person. She was a beautiful woman with eyes full of life.

Of course, the transformation of her apartment was a big surprise for Natalya. But what she loved even more, was that we found her students and they came to check in on their favorite teacher.

Her ex-student started crying when she saw her.

2 months later, we returned to Natalya to find out how her life had changed. She honestly admitted that it took her a long time to get used to the new apartment, but now she feels much better.

A piece of very good news was that Natalya is invited to work in a school — to teach an extra-curricular class. She is worried, but you can tell she is very happy to be back and she is looking forward to the change.

"I'm filled with emotions. I want to run, run and chase this life."

Honestly, we at Bright Side cried when we were writing this piece. These guys and their channel have a lot of these moving stories, but this is probably the biggest transformation they have done. Are there people in your life that do good things like this? Tell us about them in the comment section below.