Flying grandmother

At 87, Asya Dmitrievna Koshutina, a resident of the city of Velsk, the Arkhangelsk region, rises to the sky on a paraglider, jumps with a parachute, dreams of a sea cruise and ... about pure water in his own kitchen. A teacher with 60 years of experience, who has survived the war and perestroika, still lives in the house without a central water supply, leads the farm itself and takes care of an adult incapable grandson. But at the same time he considers himself an absolutely happy person, because she has heaven. The story of Asi Dmitrievna - about freedom, courage and ability to enjoy life

She said: "Of course, we can!"

I found out about Asya Dmitrievna five years ago when I accidentally stumbled upon a video with her flight on a paraglider. On the ground there is a thin woman with fluffy shock of her hair, “God's dandelion” with a sweet smile, and in the sky - a decisive and daring conqueror, the wind flutters her hair, shine in her eyes.

And five years later I found her contacts and timidly dialed the number, barely believing that he was still relevant:

- Asya Dmitrievna? I saw a movie about you ... Are you still flying?

In response, there was a peppy sonorous voice, not at all like the voice of an elderly person:

- Yes, I'm flying. Only this year I have not yet been flying. I really want to.

When I offered to make material about her flight, she calmly said:

- I don't mind.

Asya Dmitrievna on the porch of her house: Anna Shulyatieva for TD Wall with clocks and family photos in the house of Asi Dmitrievnifoto: Anna Shulynyeva for TD Asya Dmitrievna treats a neighbor's tea: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

Then I called Alexei Zenovsky, the only paraplaner pilot in the city. But at this stage, something went wrong. Either the engine broke, then Alexei himself was busy. And only on the eve of my departure from Velsk, a message came at midnight: "If you are ready tomorrow at six in the morning, we will fly."

I understood that it was almost impossible to warn Asya Dmitrievna so late. But still I dialed her number.

- Asya Dmitrievna, such a situation: tomorrow at six in the morning, is not yet hot ... Can you?

- Of course, we can, - not a second for doubt.

I still slept when the phone rang at 5:30.

“I'm ready,” Asya Dmitrievna cheerfully reported.

Asya Dmitrievna removes linen in front of the rain: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

After half an hour, we were already driving along a bumpy road out of town.

She is in jeans, a white shirt, lips are brought up with a delicate pink lipstick, with a jacket “just in case” and cookies to tea. Smiles.

After the flight, Asya Dmitrievna recites the lines from the song: “I don’t need Turkish coast, and I don’t need Africa,” she hugs Alexei, and they go to drink tea from the fire. In a conversation, it is accidentally talking about flights with a parachute in Vologda in the aircraft club closest to Velsk, where at the age of 19, Asya rose for the first time, she revives, writes a phone number and says quietly: says:

- I will realize it.

After half an hour, we were already driving along a bumpy road out of town. She is in jeans, a white shirt, lips are brought up with a delicate pink lipstick, with a jacket “just in case” and cookies to tea. Smiles Photo: Anna Shuglyuchieva for TD

The house where they wave in the sky

On Nechaevsky Street in the center of Velsk there is an inconspicuous light brown wooden house with a red roof. There are dozens of such people here. The hostess of the house is Asya Dmitrievna Koshutina. In the city she is known as a "flying grandmother." She is 87 years old. The house of Asi Dmitrievna is buried in the bushes of neatly trimmed acacias, rosehips, currants and bird cherry. Lilac decorates the entrance to the gate.

In the yard, a small garden with potatoes, carrots and greenhouses. Asya Dmitrievna says that this is not a front garden, because it is not fenced, there is no fence. And in the 1923 house, there is no central water supply, which is very saddened by Asya Dmitrievna and incredibly complicates life, but this does not prevent her from conquering the sky. It is worth it to swim slowly over the roof with a colorful wing of the paraglider, like an elderly woman grabs a towel and waves into the sky.

The first jump

Asi Dmitrievna's father was a military officer, the family moved from the garrison to the garrison. The war found them in Kyiv when the girl was only three and a half years old. She still remembers the explosions and the “bomb shelter” where they hid with her mother - a home -made hole under the roots of pine.

The evacuation brought a little Asya together with her mother to the Kirov region, and later - to Velsk, to the mother’s homeland. Father remained at the front. Asi’s grandmother, with whom they lived with her mother, was a teacher. She, as it were, in passing, inspired all the childhood of the girl: "Our Asya will be a teacher, our Asya will be a teacher."

Asya Dmitrievna in front of Poletom)

Therefore, by the time of choosing the profession, Asya, without doubt, submitted documents to the Vologda Pedagogical Institute for Teachers of Geography.

In Vologda, Asya began to attend the courses of cut and sewing in the teacher's house. And somehow I noticed the next door with a sign “Parachute circle”.

“I don’t know what pulled me.” Probably, I’m an adventurer since childhood, ”she recalls.

The month has gone to prepare and master the laying of the parachute. The first jump - from the wing of the aircraft at an altitude of 800 meters - she remembers forever:

- At first she flew with a stone down, and then ... Bliss! You sit like in a chair, you slowly sink, you see everything from above. Indescribable pleasure.

Asya Dmitrievna on the field in front of the flight: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

Return to the sky

After the institute on distribution, Asya got into a small village near Tarny. I worked there for a year, and during the summer holidays she married her classmate, who was in love with her from school.

“On the day Gagarin flew,” Asya Dmitrievna recalls, “on April 12, when they handed over on the radio that our person in space, the cleaning lady knocked on the door, says:“ Asya Dmitrievna, they came to you ” - a classmate with whom we were friends from school arrived in Tarnoga.

Valentine flew to Ace without warning from Velsk. Until the village where she worked, he walked 20 kilometers on foot along the mud, and the next day it was already necessary to return. Asya then lived with a cousin, who allowed to spend the night of Mount Gore on the sofa.

Asya Dmitrievna sits in paraplanfoto: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

“When he left,” Asya Dmitrievna recalls with a smile, “I said after him:“ You compromised me, people ask who arrived, I had to say that the groom. ” So you are now obliged to marry me. ” Well, in general, we lived for 60 years soul to soul. They lived well, raised three children.

In Velsk, Asya Dmitrievna got a teacher at school, her husband - a diesel locomotive driver. Years flew by: family, children, work. The flights remained in the memoirs. But in 2012, Asya suddenly felt the call of the sky again. She was 74.

August day, when the large Koshutin family celebrated at the table under the apple tree the 51st anniversary of the parents of the parents, a paraglider flew over the house.

PaPlanefoto flight: Anna Shulyuchyeva for TD

Asya Dmitrievna, throwing her head back, said:

- And I would fly so ...

Valery's son -in -law responded without hesitation:

- What is the matter? Let's go.

He knew the pilot of the paraglider Alexei Zenovsky personally. A few minutes later, the whole family, on two cars, went out of town, where Alexei usually takes off.

Asya Dmitrievna recalls with a smile the day when the whole family supported her, and Alexey asked:

- Not afraid?

“I'm not afraid,” she answered confidently.

So Asya Dmitrievna first flew up on a paraglider. It was August 12, Sunday, the day of the physical education, which became known when they wrote a note about her in a local newspaper as a 74-year-old woman who celebrated the holiday with a flight.

- I did not even know that this was the day of a physical education. For me it was the day of our wedding, the anniversary. My husband Valentin and I laughed then: well, we celebrated as it should - in the sky, ”she recalls.

Left and right: a view from a paraglider. In the center: Asya Dmitrievna in front of the Poletetoto: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

The pilot Alexei Zenovsky was so delighted with the courage of Asi Dmitrievna that he gave her a lifelong unlimited for flights. Since then, once a year - August 12, on the anniversary of her wedding - she soars over Velia and Vaga.

Asi Dmitrievna’s husband died four years ago, and now this tradition has become a tribute to the warm memory of their happy life together.

“Upstairs, everything that seems small and unnecessary below,” Asya Dmitrievna says enthusiastically. - All worries disappear. The soul soars.

In addition to flights, she also dreams of a sea cruise, which she once saw a film, and ... about a water supply on her street.

Asya Dmitrievna and Alexei Zenovsky drink Chaikoto: Anna Shulyatieva for TD

In the center of Velsk - without water

Velsk, a small original city of the Arkhangelsk region, is first mentioned in the annals in 1137, making it older than Moscow.

It seems to be a northern textbook of history, only here the chapters about the past and present do not follow each other, but intertwined on every street. Here, modern houses are mixed with Khrushchevs and private old houses. There are no magnificent facades or tourist attractions, but there is life - unhurried, sometimes strict, like northern weather itself.

Asya Dmitrievna in Machineophoto: Anna Shulyuchyeva for TD

In recent years, in Velsk they have been trying to improve the dilapidated infrastructure. Within the framework of the federal program “Clean Water”, water supply systems are reconstructed, but inexplicably these benefits of civilization have not affected the tiny quarter in the very center of the city on Nechaevsky Street.

Here for 120 meters, life seemed to stop in the last century. There is no water supply or sewage. The water in the wells is technical. In the summer there is a thick slurry in the wells. If you pour it into a glass, after evaporation, white lime spots remain on the walls. Therefore, drinking water has to be dragged in bottles and cans.

The toilet in the house is a cesspool - cold in winter, the temperature is like on the street. Therefore, they use the “toilet” - a bucket with a lid that Asya Dmitrievna calls a night pot.

- Our quarter is like a dead zone. In neighboring people last year, they were forced to spend water at their own expense, paid 340 thousand each,-the woman complains-we also spent gas in 2016 at our own expense. But then I still worked, my husband was alive, the children helped. Scrubbed everything that was. Now such amounts are unbearable for us.

A well on the area of ​​Asi Dmitrievna. The water in the wells is technical. In the summer in wells there is a thick slurry: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD The water in the wells is technical. In the summer in wells there is a thick slurry: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

A local entrepreneur offers to carry out a water supply system and equip everything in houses, but asks 3.5 million. This is almost 300 thousand from each house.

- We have 37 residents, among them 22 pensioners, 4 disabled people, 9 schoolchildren. Only six people work. We are veterans of labor, two are children of the war. We do not have that kind of money, ”says Asya Dmitrievna.

Previously, when the husband was alive, they drove around the city for water, they were collected from the keys by the road. Now five -liter bottles are brought by Ace Dmitrievna daughter, who is already 60 herself. And there is a lot of water. Asi Dmitrievna has a 37-year-old incompetent grandson who lives with her.

- Vanya is sick from birth. The pediatrician advised us to give him to a special institution, ”says Asya Dmitrievna,“ but I said: as long as he is alive, he will live with me. That's all day and circling around him. I feed, sing, wash, dress, undress, put to sleep. He says only “yes” or “no”, but, it seems to me, he understands everything.

Asya Dmitrievna at her house: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

The morning of Asi Dmitrievna begins with a chicken coop. For the summer, she takes chickens so that there are homemade eggs. Then - morning procedures for himself and for the grandson. Then a daughter arrives and helps around the house and the garden. Together they have lunch and go to the river to swim and wash linen - large things: jackets, blankets. The daughter takes and erases small things at home.

In the fall, they often go to the forest for mushrooms and berries. In winter, Asya Dmitrievna reads a lot. Books take books in the library - good fiction. In a place in the library, her photograph hangs - as the very reader visitor.

In the evenings, she with her grandson listens to music.

- Alice includes us classical music. We love the Russian folk choir and the choir of Pyatnitsky, - Asya Dmitrievna tells, and you can hear how Alice responds to her and includes her favorite melody. - I hardly watch the TV: I do not want to spoil my eyes.

Asya Dmitrievna waters Ogorodfoto: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

120 meters pipe before civilization

Nechaevsky Street is located in the very center of Velsk, a stone's throw from the streets of Karl Marx and Pushkin. Residents wrote to the administration many times, asked to connect them at home. There is only one answer: "There is no money in the budget." They tried to enter the regional project “Comfortable Pomorie” - to no avail.

Then they turned to the prosecutor's office. The audit showed: according to the law, the authorities are obliged to provide citizens with access to drinking water. In January 2025, the Velsky District Court ruled: to be a water supply. The administration is obliged to draw a pipe and put columns on the street.

But, as Asya Dmitrievna clarifies, we are not talking about connecting houses to the system, but only about installing street speakers. The deadline is until the end of 2026.

- The prosecutor said: you will have speakers, and then yourself. The water supply to the houses is already at our expense if someone wants. And whoever does not want to drink from the speakers, ”she says.

The map of the city of Velsk, where a plot on Nechaevsky Street was marked without a water supply and sewage system: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD The water in the wells is technical. In the summer in wells there is a thick slurry: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD Asya Dmitrievna with a poster on the streets of Welska collects signatures to participate in the regional project “Comfortable Pomorie” Photo: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD

After the court’s decision, residents once again turned to the administration with a request to carry out work earlier, already this year. The answer came dry: the project is scheduled for the 2026th. The authorities are not going to make concessions.

- Installing street speakers is not a solution to the problem. Imagine: only pensioners live here. In winter, the old woman goes to the column for water, the bucket splashed, she slipped, fell, broke her arms, legs ... In the 21st century, walking to the column - this is even funny. And it is unacceptable, ”Asya Dmitrievna says sadly.

At home in the quarter are old. Her own - 103 years. All the rest are the same - and everyone is populated by elderly people.

"We are free people"

Teacher's experience in Koshutina - 60 years. She believes that the retirement age is a time when everything can be afforded.

- I wake up in the morning and say to myself: I breathe, live. What else is needed? The main thing is not to be a chicken that knows only a garden and magazines for pensioners. It is important to read good literature, to open a new one. We have already repaid all debts to the Motherland, parents, children. I am free and have the right to live as I like, ”says Asya Dmitrievna.

The whole family supports her grandmother and respects her hobby, but relatives themselves do not dare to conquer the sky.

- They perceive my flights on paraglider as, well, the whim. As my whim, ”Asya Dmitrievna laments. - They do not believe that when you climb into the sky, you experience extraordinary inspiration.

Asya Dmitrievna leaves the house. On the porch there are bottles of drinking water. Previously, when the husband was alive, they drove around the city for water, they were collected from the keys by the road. Now five -liter bottles are brought by Ace Dmitrievna daughter, who is already 60 photos: Anna Shulyatieva for TD

"Do you want a cloud?"

While we were collecting the story of Asi Dmitrievna, she managed to take another bold step - she fulfilled her dream. The Flying Grandmother jumped with a parachute from a height of 3000 meters.

“I am very, very pleased that I fulfilled my dream,” Asya Dmitrievna shares joyfully with me on the phone. - And most importantly - I didn’t bite, I didn’t bite at all, everything went very well.

When Asya Dmitrievna signed up for a jump, carefully adding in a conversation that she was 87 years old, at the other end of the wire did not pay attention to this - they invited nine in the morning on Sunday.

The day before, she called again: the forecast promised to rain from morning to evening. “And if you are scared, do not come,” they answered her. “I'm not scared. We will come, ”she snapped.

The road took three hours. By eight in the morning, he and his daughter and son -in -law were in place. Mostly young people gathered in the club, guys of about eighteen. When Asya Dmitrievna went and said loudly: “I came to jump,” everyone turned around. The duty officer specified who would jump. “I,” she said.

Asya Dmitrievna treats her neighbor's tea. Photo: Anna Shulyuchieva for TD

The line moved slowly, and only by three o’clock a low, thin instructor with gray hair - Oleg approached her. Having learned her weight - 53 kilograms, he hugged Asya Dmitrievna and said: "This is mine." Later it turned out that he had ten thousand jumps behind him.

She told him that in her youth she had already jumped three times and now wanted to feel the flight again. Oleg put her in first place in the plane, checked the mounts, all the time, while flying, gently touched his shoulder, as if listening, whether she was trembling. Asya Dmitrievna did not tremble.

Then - a jump.

- Do you want a cloud? - asked Oleg.

- Want.

They swam into a white veil, circled, swayed from right to left. The landing turned out to be soft - the instructor tried.

- This is an indescribable delight. I'll jump yet! - said Asya Dmitrievna already on the ground.

And she also says that she is even ready to exchange her dream of a sea cruise - and she knows that all her dreams come true - to the water supply. If only he was.

- Then I will collect all the neighbors in my yard, we will arrange a great tea party, and I will definitely celebrate this holiday in the sky.

Asya Dmitrievna waves into the sky flying over her house Alexei Zenovskyophoto: Anna Shuglyuyeva for TD