Turkish woman caring for Russian deemed ‘holy woman’

ISTANBUL

Russian deputy Roman Khudyakov (R) visited Kabadayı (C) and Mustafa (L). DHA Photo

Gülsüm Kabadayı, who has been nursing a Russian boy after she found him in a hospital bed following a severe accident, was labeled a “holy woman” in Russia, according to Doğan news agency.

Russian deputy Roman Khudyakov and Russian Duma member Ramin Gasymov, visited Kabadayı in her Antalya home, bringing her gifts as a sign of the nation’s gratitude.

The deputies told Kabadayı that she was labeled as “the holy woman” in Russia and that state officials had been receiving hundreds of phone calls every day from people wanting to contact her.

Kabadayı became an overnight hero when she appeared on a Russian TV show on Jan. 23, asking authorities to find the relatives of the Russian boy who has been under her care since she found him in a hospital in Antalya.

Kabadayı found the Russian boy when he was 17-years-old, unconscious and undergoing treatment in an Antalya hospital. When no one came to claim him, Kabadayı chose to stay with the boy, naming him Umut, meaning “Hope.”