This is my story

I am Olesia Ganzha. I was born 4th in the family. There are six of us, children. As far as I remember, my parents were not friendly. My father used to drink and to beat my mother. I remember the day my father came home drunk, he awoke my mother and started beating her with a poker and à metal dustbin lid. The reason was he didn't like how she tidied up the kitchen. Such violent beatings were not unusual, so to cope with the grief my mother was often drunk herself.
One evening we were all with mother at home. We watched a cartoon film and were getting ready to go to bed. Then father came home drunk. He started beating our mother again until she was covered with blood.  He forced us to wash her.  On that particular day she was also drunk. She went to bed and started breathing heavily. That was a sign of her coming death. The next morning she died. My older sister and father were trying to give her liquid ammonia, but it was too late.
In a day a district militia officer came, they signed some documents and took mother's body away. Father wasn't at home.
The day came, mother was buried but the life continued. Our youngest sister was 8 months old then and she was taken to a rescue shelter.