Rescuers

Many people thought of how to save Lesha:

His mother went to church and brought special books, icons, sprinkled holy water and fixed an icon of Saint Panteleimon on the wall. She begged to recite prayers before going to bed.

A schoolmate read on the Internet that a mixture made of grass-snakes or worms helped to treat cancer. So, she suggested catching them, putting them into vodka, keeping them there for some time and then take a spoonful of it. Lesha decided to try that another time.

Ivan Ivanovich Zarussky brought a book with mantras and a statuette of Goddess Tara. When a famous Indian guru arrived in Moscow, Ivan Ivanovich asked him about Lesha's personal mantra which was deduced from the moment of Lesha's birth. In the evenings Lesha sat surrounded by books of prayers, mantras and performed all the prescribed rituals.

The supporters of the psychosomatic reasons for such diseases advised to undertake body-oriented therapy. It was important to listen to the file and to follow the instructions. The quality of the file was poor and sounded rather clumsy. Actually, all this doesn't differ much from yoga and mantras.

Ivan Ivanovich's wife started to teach Lesha yoga and came to hospital to demonstrate the exercises. Living in the sterilized ward for so long was boring. That is why just a simple lying on the floor could make Lesha's life much more interesting. Lesha learned to sit in various positions and regularly the staff found him practicing yoga.

For some time when people ask "How to help?" Lesha asked to send postcards or small toys as talismans. I had some ritual sense and perhaps it was a child's perception of how to treat a child who had a cancer. Very soon the ward became full of toys and Lesha mentally constructed various combinations, giving then functions (for example, the cat was guarding the wardrobe, the penguin was looking after the bedside table, the fishes after the medicine dropper, the sea monster and the phantom of the opera were guarding the window from birds and tin-tin with the dog were controlling the whole situation).

Lesha thought that the absence of action was his main enemy and that is why he went on creating collages and installations from everything that he had at hand.

As a result the ward looked eclectic. Collection of toys, charms ,pictures, icons, Indian statuettes, collages. These things were even placed on the droppers. Doctors and nurses thought that the patient was mad but didn't protest. Only during the repeated hospitalization the senior nurse looked in Lesha's eyes and asked not to fill up the ward. "The ward should look the same when you leave it as it did when you entered it".