Our first detailed acquaintance occurred when Andrey was 8 years old. Today he is 16. During his short life, he underwent 8 craniotomy operations, an upper jaw osteotomy, and has a cosmetic operation to correct the skull ahead. The trouble is that Andrei inherited Crouzon syndrome, a rare genetic disorder accompanied by progressive deformities of the face and cerebral parts of the skull with the development of concomitant disorders. Experienced Moscow surgeons managed to remedy it, but he lost his sight.
During the next meeting, we played as a teacher and a student, he tested me for my knowledge of Mendeleev’s periodic table and put me a two. These are only several of his hobbies: fire alarms, earlier, they were mushrooms, washing powders, firearms, Egyptian mummies and studying various foreign languages, he especially likes Georgian. The list is impressive and I think it never ends. Here, we are two of a kind. The world is so vast and diverse that you do not want to stick to one thing.
Once we were traveling in the car, and he started talking about plasma. “If I had some plasma, I would make a big plasma ball (larger than the Sun) and launch it beyond the solar system,” – said he. Literally next week, I read an article in the magazine, which said that in Germany they had already invented and launched a stellarator, an alternative source of energy that generates plasma from water. Well, isn't it a miracle?
I hope that our friendship will turn into a lifelong observation. I am sure that I have many discoveries ahead.
«He could have become a new Harry Potter - the Boy who survived no matter what. In the struggle between the light and the darkness, the light won. In the confrontation of the chaos and the order, the chaos retreated. Fate prepared for the boy more than living in the disease.
Andrei is 12 years old; at this age, the one who was the imaginary Boy fell into the place of Power where found friends and understanding of the destined way. Andrei is only 12, but he already asks questions which make us, the adults think. Even now he finds the answers which we do not even think about. How does the light feel by touch? How to feel the shadow? What is beyond the visible and the invisible border?.. We are used to trusting our eyes; closing them leads to the feeling as if the world around us seems to cease to exist. It is nothing more but a black point.
For Andrei who has not seen the world since childhood, the world is the infinity. It hides the possibilities which give broad scope for imagination. 34 letter of the Alphabet. Dreams about a stegosaurus. Flying through the starry sky map... There are no barriers for Andrei. The boy who survived creates his own Universe. Are you ready to open it to yourself? Is there enough courage to meet with the Unknown?
No matter that there is no such a word "anthoropozator", invented by Andrei, in the dictionaries. Let the rhymes of the boy's poems be simple and unpretentious. Let him not to know what color the grass, the sun, the snow are... Andrei's inner eye sees much more than his usual eyes. What about us? Are we capable of such sharp-sightedness? Whether capable or not is the main question».
