I woke up in the morning.

“Mom!” I called her, but she didn’t answer me. She was lying on her back, and her mouth was slight opened. I ran to my neighbors.

“My mom died! Please come to us! Help us, please!” I cried. One of them came in.

“Your mother has to be buried.” She said and then left.

I was sitting next to my mom. Sometimes, I was calling her, “Mom!” thinking that something could be changed.

In a couple of hours, I got very hungry. I found something. I ate, and then went to my neighbor again.

“Can you help me, please? I don’t know what to do.” I asked.

“I have a big family and too many problems of my own. I don’t have time to take care of your mother's funeral. Let’s men take care of it.” She said.

Though, there were no men left in the house. There were only three old men in different families. I went to every family, but nobody wanted to help me. Nobody asked me, if I was hungry. Nobody offered me to stay with them overnight.

I was sitting next to my mom the entire night.

In the morning, I went to a graveyard. There was only an old man, gatekeeper, sitting there on a bench.

“Can I bury my mom here?” I asked him.

He didn’t answer at first, and I decided that he didn’t want to talk to me. I was about to leave.

Then, he suddenly said, “Only adults could do such serious matter, not children. A coffin cost money. To dig a grave also is not free of charge.”

“I don’t have adults.” I said. “I’m alone. My mom died yesterday and lay in our room alone.”

He thought about it a little, and then said, “I won’t do anything without money.”

I didn’t have money with me, so I went home to look for it.  

I found some money, but it was not enough even to dig a grave. I went outside to look for some wooden planks to make a coffin myself.  I went through all the dumps of our streets, but found just one plank. I took it and went home. I was hungry and tired. There was no food in the house. I drunk some water, and started to think how to attach this plank to my mom that it would look like a coffin. Finally, I decided to put her on this plank, and tie her legs and body to the plank with a rope. But she was very heavy, and I was not able to push the plank under her body. I didn’t know what to do. I set on the floor right next to her, and cried. I didn’t call her anymore.

I was desperate and went to my neighbors again.

“Could you help me, please, to put my mom on the plank.” I asked them, but nobody came.

The next morning, I went to a graveyard again and begged the old man to bury my mom.

“Here all the money I found in the house. “ I said and gave him the money. He took them, counted. ”It’s not enough.”

“Please! I don’t know what do to!” I begged him. “That’s all I found. I don’t have anymore.”

He looked at me, and then gave me my money back. “Come back afternoon.”

When I came back to him, he silently took a horse from a shed, geared it up into a cart, and we came to my house.

“I don’t have a coffin.” I said on our way. “But I have a plank. I was trying to tie it to my mom, but she is too heavy.”

He didn’t answer. He was just smoking, and cursing. I was very afraid that he would change his mind.

He took my plank, looked at it for a couple of second.

“Call your neighbors to help me caring her out of the house.” He said.

I ran to my neighbors, but nobody came.

I came back alone. He cursed again.

“Then you help me!” He said.

He already tied my mom’s body to the plank with a rope.

“Take the plank from the other side.” He ordered. But I didn’t have enough strength to lift it.

“Ok! Come over here. Let’s pull it together from my side.”

We pulled the plank with my mom’s body together, and the other side of the plank was drugged on the floor and then on the ground.  

Then, we silently walked after the cart that carried my mom’s dead body tied to the plank, covered with a cloth. German patrol stopped us. A soldier opened up a cloth, said something loudly. The old gateman bowed, “He is an orphan. This is his mother.” He said. The German soldier listened scornfully, than turned around at let us walk.

We came to the graveyard late a night. The gateman already dug a grave. He tied another big rope around my mom, and slowly pulled her from the cart. Then, he pushed her to the grave and filled the grave with dirt.

Then, he stood right next to me and said some prayers.

“You have to remember this place, where your mom is buried.” He said.  I did.

It was already dark, when I left the graveyard.

Many years passed. I came back to this graveyard many times, and still can’t find her grave. I thought that I would remember it for the rest of my life. I also forgot the name of the gateman.