And the Babushka Laughed

There are few achievements that can compare with making a 100-year-old Russian babushka laugh.

When you stop to think of all the things this person has seen and lived through in her ten decades of life... When you try to imagine how it must feel to outlive all your friends and acquaintances, to bury your adult children... It is astounding to think that one could still retain a sense of humor, a feeling of charity and hope toward the world.

And yet the babushka laughs, and her face lights up with a smile that could melt Siberian permafrost.