Life in MengeryCHAPTER 10 After I arrived in Mengery I suddenly became very ill: my temperature changed from very high (40°) to very low and I vomited a lot. Mengery had a small medical clinic and I was placed into their tiny "hospital ward". Dr. Lempert, the same Dr. Lempert who had treated me when I was a small child, back in Riga, and who used to treat Iren when she was a little girl, was living in Mengery and was working at the orphanage medical unit. At first he decided that I was suffering from meningitis, but later he had, as he himself said, a "revelation" and he realized that I had been suffering from malaria. He treated me accordingly and I started getting better. I was even given special food rations. I still had to remain in bed as there were periods when I felt very week. My "Mengerian saga" ended by being recalled to Moscow. This was the occasion when on my way to Moscow, in Kazan, I visited Monya (Solomon) and Ida Giller. (S. Giller, a chemist, was to become a member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and one of the most prominent research chemists of the Latvian Republic. He also became the founder of the Latvian Institute of Organic Chemistry). When sending me off on my way Ida gave me a silk scarf as a present, while Monya gave me a loaf of bread and said that it will be of better use to me than that reservation I had for a place on the train. He was right, of course: at the railway station the official in charge of the reservations was no-where to be found and for a loaf of bread the train attendant brought me to my "seat" well in advance. This way I was able to take up the "third floor" berth and to arrive in Moscow safe and sound. In Moscow I basically attended to all sorts of "official matters" and finally I boarded the train from Moscow to Gorky in order to proceed to Shava. My heart was heavy because I knew that I would be staying there 10 days only. After that I was supposed to go to Kirov together with some other people from the orphanage, to join another party course. When I arrived at the Shava orphanage the children surrounded me and embraced me so hard that I could hardly breathe. Iren was among them! When she ran up to me I did not recognize her at first – for the second time! Her hair grew and she wore them differently, she now had a fringe. I remember thinking then: "Just like that little violin player in that film!" This is what we looked like in September 1944, when I returned from that party course in Kirov.
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This was also the time when I absolutely terribly missed Iren. During the periods when I suffered from headaches, at night when I could not sleep I dreamt that Iren was with me. It seemed to me that if only Iren could place her little hand on my forehead the pain would go away… This was how I spent my nights: suffering from insomnia and longing for Iren. During the day when I felt better, I used to write Iren long letters. They brought me some colored pencils and I started drawing dolls for Iren. I also drew different kinds of clothes for these dolls. I added these drawings to my letters to her and they somehow "added color" to my long stay in the orphanage "hospital". I became very weak and even when they allowed me to get out of bed I could barely walk around. My head was spinning too. However, my work was waiting for me and soon I went back to my duties.