Nadezhda Bushueva has recently left her house for the first time in over two decades after staying inside to look after her mother.
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The mother, Tatyana Bushueva, hadn't allowed herdaughterto go outside since she was 16, preventing her from finishing her studies. Eventually, Nadezhda even stopped trying to explore the outside worldand just gave in to her life in confinement. Tatyana claimed that their isolated life was to protect her daughter from the world around them.
When Tatyana retired, her daughter stayed to take care of her but a recent hospital trip has finally prompted Nadezhda to step into the outside world.
They lived in deplorable conditions
The mother-daughter duo lived in their house together with a number of rats and cats without electricity or running water leaving the daughter to admit that she hadn't showered since 2006. The matted hair on her head made the statement all the more obvious and the lump of hair had to be chopped off as there was no salvaging it.
The two even shared a bed together and the daughter claimed that the animals inside would never live long but the pair could not be bothered to move their corpses. Nadezhda stated:
My life is worse than a cat’s life. Cats have more rights. I don’t even exist anymore. I’m the living dead.
Tatyana rejected the help of social services and care workers after her retirement and forced her Nadezhda to take care of her. A recent trip to the hospital led Nadezhda to find her local council leader, Vasily Tovarnov and tell him her story. He stated:
Nadezhda came to my office by herself. We wanted to feed her, we prepared her sandwiches, but she didn’t eat anything. But she is not insane.
She had come to ask the leader for support in the form of a job and passport. However, despite receiving her requests, Nadezhda is still too scared to make too many changes in her life as she fears that she will not understand the modern world.
