A new life began for the Mogilevite Elena Onishchuk in retirement - with dancing, traveling and bright emotions

Mogilev Elena Onishchuk: engineer, teacher, dancer, super-grandmother and beautiful lady at balls

The heroine of the film “Moscow does not believe in tears” said that at the age of 40 life is just beginning, but my interlocutor is sure: “Life begins in retirement!” With a well-deserved rest, she established a ballroom dance club, with which she traveled half of Belarus for two years, became a volunteer of silver age, a participant in numerous creative competitions and festivals. The secret of her active longevity is to be a passionate person, constantly learn new things and love life endlessly.

It was not easy to arrange an interview with Elena Vladimirovna - the daily schedule of the Mogilevchanka is painted in advance. Even today, we talk in between classes of the ballroom and historical-household dance club “Renaissance”, which under her leadership works in the department of active longevity support of the Social Service Center of the Leninsky district of Mogilev. My character in the form of an elegant evening outfit complements a friendly smile:

- At the beginning of last week, she became the winner of the Mogilev Super-Grandmother contest, then went to Vitebsk to participate in the first union meeting of citizens of the older generation “We are for active longevity”, and on the weekend she left for Zhilichi for Verasnyoеski Fest to the Bulgakov Palace. By the way, not only whirled in the waltz, but also made up a dance program - she entered the preparation group for the holiday.

I’m surprised to ask her how she lives in such a rhythm. Immediate response:

- There's enough strength, there's no time! I'm the wrong grandmother - I don't even have time to process the apple harvest in my parents' garden, but I'm happy - I recharge myself with energy in dancing, traveling, communicating, volunteering and other hobbies. I try to live actively and positively, so my motto is: “Old age will not find at home – I am on the road, I am on the road.” The biggest passion of Elena Vladimirovna is dancing. Even with her husband Vladimir Petrovich 47 years ago met at one of the dance evenings in the student hostel. Tango, waltz, foxtrot, polonaise, quadrille, mazurka - in the repertoire of the couple there are many beautiful numbers. Not without mysticism, smiles the Mogilevchan:

- In her youth, she was fond of numerology and calculated that she was a Spanish dancer in a previous life. I was born with a sense of rhythm and music. We are fond of ballroom culture and etiquette with our husband, so each performance takes us on a time machine to the era of gallant gentlemen and sophisticated ladies in crinolines. We live by dance, understand each other in motion, and get incredible emotions from it.

Elena Onishchuk has no choreographic education, but she has experience: she studied with her husband for five years in the ballroom dance studio, adopted the experience of the Gomel ensemble “Silver Age”. And then the couple established their own club, which opened in the life of the spouses and their like-minded people a bright and colorful period - performances, travels, new acquaintances and, of course, beautiful outfits, which the heroine will have at least a dozen.

- Dancing is our common cause that unites and unites. And in general, the secret to a long married life is respect, common interests and love, which we managed to preserve even after years. The family is a very big job: sometimes you need to make concessions and smooth out sharp corners, sums up Mohilevchanka. From a physicist to a lyricist, Elena Onishchuk grew up in a creative family: her father was an artist, and as a student he worked in the extras of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus, her mother studied at the capital’s medical institute and played episodic roles on “Belarusfilm” – for example, she performed an episode in the film “Mikolka Paravoz”. The house has always been full of creative guests: artists, artists, musicians. In the mid-1960s in their apartment even sang Vladimir Vysotsky, who at that time starred in Bobruisk in the film “I come from childhood”.

However, Elena Vladimirovna chose a far from creative profession, because she was good friends with mathematics and was a pronounced physicist:

- She received a higher technical education and worked as a design engineer at the plant, and then a new mindset came - Gorbachev perestroika. With the change came unemployment: in the early 1990s, my profession was unclaimed. One door closed, but another opened: I graduated and became an economics accountant.

And then, by the will of fate, Elena got into the Belarusian Institute of Law, where she later worked as a senior teacher for 30 years:

- I realized that I was interested in the laws governing the development of the state and the economy, so I went to study again. In the future, this allowed to engage in scientific and teaching activities. Working with young people, it is impossible to grow old: you keep your finger on the pulse all the time and correspond to the time. It made me realize that our age is just the numbers on our passport. The sphere of interest of Elena Onishchuk is extensive, including she is fond of genealogy - she found information about ancestors up to the XIV century! Now the grandson will know not only his grandparents, but also the names and destinies of the founders of the family

- I've learned a lot. For example, in previous generations, teachers were also born: my great-grandfather and my grandmother worked as teachers, and my grandfather in the 1930s was deputy director of the Mogilev Pedagogical Institute for distance learning, and before that he headed the Polotsk Pedagogical College. Now I understand why, without planning at first, I still came to the profession.

According to Elena Vladimirovna, the silver age is the most suitable period to take time and find something to your liking. And the state does a lot for this:

- Various events and activities are organized, social service centers of the population work. In them, everyone can choose a direction according to their abilities and interests.

COMPETENTLY

Svetlana Stepanova, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Mogilev Regional Executive Committee:

- In the bodies for labor, employment and social protection of the Mogilev region, almost 278 thousand pension recipients are registered, of which more than 56 thousand people continue to work. Ensuring a decent quality of life and creating conditions for healthy and active longevity is a strategic state priority. The country has expanded the conditions for the social inclusion of older citizens in public life. In the centers of social services of the region there are support departments for active longevity of day stay. On their basis there are more than 180 circles and clubs, which are visited by more than 3.8 thousand people.

podolskaya@sb.by