had new pages — Artem himself pasted in the photos: school photos, walks, fishing with his grandfather.

On the last one he wrote:

“Family is not the ones who stay around forever. It’s the ones who come back.”

Seven years went. Artyom turned fifteen.

He loved to photograph places where memories remained: abandoned houses, rusty swings, traces of a fire.

He called them “traces of life.”

“We have a real artist growing up,” he said proudly. “Only instead of a brush, there’s a camera.”

Olga had become gentle over the years. Her smile maintained the same, but there was something deep in her eyes now, as if she had found inner stability.

Lena started teaching literature at a local school.

The students respected her. Life finally found meaning, passion, and a place to stay for a long time.

But time passed. And with it, everything that is wonderful.

One spring day, Nikolai had di:ed.

An old photograph was found on the bedside table: Lena in her graduation dress, she and Olga next to each other – young, laughing.

The caption read:

“You taught me to remember.

Thank you, Grandpa.”

Another five years passed.

Artem studied Moscow University in the photography and journalism department. He wrote home often. Each letter started the same way:

“Mom, hi.

I miss you. I remember.”

The year 2025.

Artem, grown up, returns to his home.

He opens an old album. On the first page is Lena as a child.

On the last page is himself, with his mother under a blossoming apple tree.

On the last page he writes:

“History does not end if someone remembers it.
This is our history. The history of return.”

Artem often came back to the house where he spent his childhood. He did not move there completely – he left city life, work, filming, festivals.

But every time he returned the home, he felt as if he was returning to something important, native.

Lena’s books, albums, Nikolai’s thermos, Olga’s herbs – everything maintained as it was. One day, sorting through old things, he found an envelope without a signature. Only the date: 1990.

Inside is a letter from Lena, written on the day of her vanishment.

“If you are reading this, it means I have left.

Don’t seek me. I need another life. Forgive me if you can.

I will return when I have earned your forgiveness.”

He took a picture of them and carefully returned them back.

In 2026, Artem’s book was announced. It was simply called: “Photo Album” .

It contains photographs, letters, Lena’s monologues, Olga’s diary entries, stories about Nikolai. Everything was true.

Pain, remorse, love, forgiveness. The family is not perfect, but alive.

The book unpredictedly found thousands of readers. Because it was real.

Lena was invited to presentations.

She was scared of public speaking, but one day she went on stage and said one thing:

– Thank you that someone remembers us. Because when we are remembered, we are alive.

And at that moment I understood:

No one disappeares. They just become silence, wind, light between the leaves.
And if you truly remember, you are with them.

Always.