It seemed that everyone knew her: officials and the homeless, show business stars and children from Donetsk. She was considered a saint and accused of all mortal sins, loved and hated. She died on December 25, 2016, and the controversy about her has not subsided so far. And only one person knows what she really was, because he lived with her for 30 years. For the first time we are publishing the memoirs of Gleb Glinka, the husband of Dr. Liza, from the book “Doctor Liza Glinka. “I’m always on the side of the weak.” Diaries, conversations.
In general, Elizabeth was distinguished by an incredible ability to rejoice like a child, giving herself completely to this joy. And she rejoiced most of all when she managed to help someone, relieve pain, cheer, laugh, support, help out of trouble and subsequently admonish, restore hope, human dignity.
She was proud, even boasted, that “her” homeless people were the most well-groomed, the most luxuriously dressed and shod, they wore things from the most fashionable manufacturers. She explained this by the fact that the wives of the oligarchs, when they discovered the adventures of their husbands, collected their entire wardrobe and brought it to Dr. Lisa for those in need in her basement, killing two birds with one stone. And, to be honest, it was difficult for me to give her gifts on holidays or for her birthday – my gift could well have been given to her friend or even a stranger whom she wanted to please.
She was – at least until recent years, when hostilities in Ukraine continued without end and the relentless persecution did not subside – cheerful and even a little hooligan. Could play someone. I remember how she convinced me to change my voice and call one of our mutual acquaintances in the States, an outspoken anti-Semite, and try to collect a donation from him to create a Jewish baseball team, Lechaim. Elizabeth nearby laughed so hard that I had to urgently interrupt the conversation.
At the same time, she could be extremely cold, even cruel, when she defended the interests of the helpless. And resourceful, and very persistent.
Elizabeth intuitively, by touch, found an approach to a variety of people, knew what to say, chose the right words
… At the same time, she was very feminine, she loved fans, lace, frills, wicker baskets, lavender, cameo brooches, classic silk strings of pearls with knots between pearls, and generally elegant old-fashioned women’s accessories.
… Glory, most likely, irritated her, and she accepted her fame as obedience. Journalists will confirm that she often disrupted an interview or speech when she received a call to work, another call, since any request for help was by definition urgent for her. She behaved this way, it seems to me, not because we are all equal, but because everyone is created in the image and likeness of God.
…She was incredibly insightful and completely honest. She could confuse dates, facts, confidently turn right when she should have left, but in relation to herself and those around her, she had X-ray vision: she saw people through and through. And thanks to this, she was an excellent diagnostician, a psychologist, she could help where others were helpless.
Elizabeth somehow miraculously, intuitively, by touch, found an approach to a variety of people, knew what to say, chose the right words. She overcame resistance and convinced the supporters of Oleg Shein from Astrakhan and even Nadezhda Savchenko from Kiev to stop the political hunger strike, forced the most senior officials to help those who were not helped by anyone, set up wealthy people to support prisoners, the homeless, and terminally ill. She really perceived and loved them, carried them in herself, and people felt it.
Although she easily and quickly won over people of all classes, there were those in whom she aroused outright hatred.
In Orthodox circles, even during her lifetime, she used to be called a saint. And she didn’t like it. She reminded everyone that for some time she smoked, used both obscene words and prison jargon. As one of our acquaintances aptly noted, she did everything not to be perceived as such. She wanted people not to focus on her, but to pay attention to her charges.
… Although she easily and quickly won over people of all classes, there were those in whom she aroused outright hatred. Apparently, kindness, compassion, mercy not only inspire, but can also awaken the opposite. After 2014, disgusting posts began to appear on social networks. At first, Elizabeth did not notice this persecution, at the same time she felt sorry for and despised those who wrote it. Then, when for the third year she had to take out crippled children from the places of hostilities for treatment to Moscow, she, when asked by a journalist what she would like most in the world, answered: “To be like before the war.”
Elizabeth could not stand not only the scale of the disaster (“I did not imagine that so many children would be killed … That there would be so many wounded among them,” she said in an interview with Ksenia Sokolova). And not only its duration: three long years. First of all, she could not stand the fact that everything that happened was not the consequences of a natural disaster, physical or mental illness, ruin, personal or social catastrophe. No, people deliberately did this to each other, including children, the disabled, orphans, the elderly, the sick, the helpless, deliberately causing suffering to the innocent. She could not come to terms with this, she could not pass through herself.
The book “Doctor Liza Glinka. “I’m always on the side of the weak.” Diaries, Conversations” is published on November 21, 2017 by the AST Publishing House in the “Edition of Elena Shubina”.