Children and grandchildren consider the widow of the first cosmonaut of the planet Valentina Gagarin to be a happy woman. She managed to meet the only man she needed. It was next to this faithful and patient woman that Yuri Gagarin went from an aviation school cadet to an astronaut, which the whole world once learned about.
Officer's girlfriend
Valentina Ivanovna Gagarina, nee Goryacheva, met her future husband back in 1955 in Orenburg, where she lived with her parents. At this time, Vale was 20 years old. Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, a native of the village of Klushino, Saratov region, was only a year older.
She was a student at a medical school, he was a cadet at the Chkalovsky Aviation. The young people saw each other in the evening at a dance in the club. According to Gagarin's recollections, he immediately liked the shy brown-eyed girl in a blue simple dress, and he invited her to a waltz.
On October 27, 1957, a new Gagarin family was registered. In the same year, the couple had to part for a while: Valentina worked as a telegraph operator and continued to study to be a paramedic, and Yuri, who graduated from an aviation school, went to continue his further service in the distant Murmansk region, in the military village of Luostari.
Gagarin was offered other options, but he chose the Arctic: he always tried to overcome difficulties. Valentina met his decision stoically. Having received a medical assistant diploma, Gagarina, as a real friend of an officer, immediately left for the North to her husband.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, she was a surprisingly calm, picky wife. She did not strive for publicity and entertainment, she cooked well and in the evenings waited for Yuri to go home, always with a friendly smile.
Test of Glory
In 1957, the first daughter of Valentina and Yuri, Lena, was born. And already on April 12, 1961, Gagarin became known all over the world. The flight of the first cosmonaut of the Earth took place on the Vostok-1 spacecraft, after which Senior Lieutenant Gagarin immediately received the rank of major at the special request of Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev.
A test of glory fell on the family: photographers everywhere lay in wait for Valentina and her family, celebrities began to visit the house, the media wrote about the Gagarins, they were shown on TV …
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Yuri Alekseevich at that time became perhaps the most popular person on the planet. In a short time, within the framework of foreign visits, he visited 30 states, and everywhere he was greeted with enthusiasm. On some trips, for example, to Japan and India, he was accompanied by his faithful wife Valentina, always calm, with a friendly smile.
Most likely, for a modest, simple woman, not used to and not striving for publicity, such a husband's fame became a serious test. Moreover, she had two little daughters in her arms. The second, Galina, was born a month before the flight of the famous father. Nevertheless, Valentina Ivanovna continued to adequately fulfill her role of the officer's girlfriend, always supported him and did not expose the life of the family to the public.
Yuri Alekseevich was constantly busy, there was little time left for his wife and daughters, but the family spent the rare hours of rest together. Personal time for two became less and less. Valentina never sat idly by: raising her daughters, running a house, working as a nurse, a laboratory assistant-biochemist at the Mission Control Center.
Life after the death of her husband
The family happiness of the Gagarins was strong and bright, but short-lived - Valentina and Yuri lived together for almost a dozen years. On March 27, 1968, Yuri Alekseevich died in a plane crash during a training flight. According to the recollections of the youngest daughter of the Gagarins, Galina, Valentina Ivanovna had just undergone surgery for a stomach ulcer, so she found out about the tragedy only the next day.
It is even difficult to imagine the pain of loss experienced by a young, blooming woman who was left alone with two young daughters, without her beloved husband. Nevertheless, Valentina continued to work, raised hardworking, educated daughters. After the death of Yuri Gagarin, she almost did not communicate with journalists and stopped attending official events.
Only much later Valentina Ivanovna acted as a writer-memoirist, decided to share with readers her memories of her famous husband. Her book 108 Minutes and All Life was published in 1981.
Valentina Ivanovna never married again, although she had to go through much of her only beloved man. In 2019, Gagarina turned 84.
The widow of the first cosmonaut of the planet lives in Star City, in a house opposite which a monument to Yuri Alekseevich is erected. Today she is retired, leads a secluded life, communicates only with her daughters and grandchildren.
The eldest daughter of the Gagarins became the general director of the Moscow Kremlin Museum-Reserve, the youngest - a professor at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. Grandchildren Ekaterina and Yuri, named after the world-famous grandfather, were educated at Moscow State University.
According to the memoirs of Galina Yuryevna Gagarina, granddaughter Katya once called her grandmother the happiest, because she met the only man on her way that she needed. Valentina Ivanovna was surprised at first, then thought and agreed with her granddaughter.
Together with the wife of Yuri Gagarin, a parrot still lives, which half a century ago was presented to her by the first cosmonaut of the Earth, and for her - just a beloved husband. Valentina Ivanovna still does not give interviews, does not attend official celebrations, but helps the local Gagarin Museum. In it, she gave a lot of memorable personal belongings of the pilot-cosmonaut.
