I'm Helping the Russians
…the ones who fled and ended up in our neighborhood.
A few years ago we met a new neighbor from down the street. We got acquainted with her through our Golden Retrievers – her Sunny and our BooBoo and Allie instantly hit it off and we all quickly became friends. A Russian immigrant who settled here after living in Iowa, she taught English as a second language. A vibrant soul who was always eager to explore everything life had to offer, she loved hiking, attending the ballet and theater, traveling the world, and creating quirky paintings for her neighbors.
She was kind and generous and got to know other Russian immigrants in the area. About six weeks ago she told us that she was taking in a young married couple who were also Russian. They fled their country due to their support of Alexei Navalny, which raised suspicions in the Kremlin and they were temporarily detained. They escaped with only a backpack apiece, through Georgia, then Turkey, then to Mexico before legally entering the United States seeking asylum. Their hearing was scheduled for October, and they would stay with her in the meantime. The husband, an electrical engineer, is fairly fluent in English, whereas his wife struggles with the language and faces health challenges but is a very creative artist. Both are eager to work but are restricted until their asylum hearing is completed.
Then tragedy struck. Our beloved neighbor, this beacon of kindness, suffered a brain aneurysm and passed away two weeks ago. Those two young people had barely known her for a month. We're all reeling from the sudden loss of someone so full of life. I'm well aware of life's fleeting nature, but that doesn't make it any less painful. Our neighbor’s son, an analyst in Austin, Texas who got married last year, told the couple they could remain in her home through October as planned and he took Sunny back to Austin.
Barbara and I and other neighbors are doing what we can to help by hosting them for dinner periodically and finding services in the area to help them with food and clothing. Today, she took them to a local food bank where a friend of hers is a volunteer. We're letting our pups keep the couple company from time to time.
These young people are resilient individuals. They'll persevere because, like many immigrants, they aspire to achieve the American dream and make meaningful contributions to society. It's disheartening that their lives, like those of so many others, were disrupted by an oppressive regime, and their sympathies lie with Ukraine. Thankfully, they're alive, unlike their inspiration, Navalny and hopefully here they can build a future free from the tyranny inflicted by Putin. But if against all odds Trump prevails in November, they may find themselves swapping one dictatorship for another and sent back to Russia to face the consequences. They don’t deserve that. Nor do we.