Tag: Nicholas II

On the End of the Line

The little apartment above the barber shop is still there. Little has changed since 1960 at 716 East Gerrard Street on the edge of Toronto, Canada. In 1960, that’s where the Martemianoff Family lived. Constantine and his wife, Sinaida, had left eastern Europe decades ago and settled in the tight-knit immigrant community, finding the little upstairs apartment both affordable and convenient.

That summer, as the 1960 presidential election dominated the news, the elderly couple found themselves faced with a dilemma. A close friend of theirs, another immigrant, an old widow, needed their help. She’d buried her husband a few years before and had then suffered from a stroke earlier in 1960. After a stint in the hospital, it was determined that she could not take care of herself.

Now, Christian charity only goes so far in my book. The Martemianoffs had a similar give and take; they discussed at length what their obligations were before God and what they could do to help the widow, if anything. It was Constantine who suggested that they allow the now-bedridden old woman to move in for a time. Perhaps, he told his spouse, they could nurse her back to health enough that she could return to her own home and care for herself. Sheepishly, Sinaida agreed.

And so, the widow was released from the hospital and moved into the spare bedroom in the little apartment above the barber shop on Gerrard Street. And soon, any misgivings that either of the hosts may have held about helping the widow were dispersed. She needed care, certainly, but her attitude was bright and cheerful. She told Sinaida, “I always laugh; if I ever start crying, I may never stop!”

She was ever so grateful to the couple for their help and patience with her. There is, I’ve learned, good pride and bad pride. Bad pride is thinking that your crap doesn’t stink; good pride is holding your dignity when you’re in a dire situation. And that good pride, that’s what this widow woman had, the couple saw. Of course, they knew her fairly well already, but you never know what someone is truly like until you have to live with them and care for them day after day.

Sadly, despite her good attitude and the good care of the couple, the widow never recovered. She died a few weeks after coming into the Martemianoff’s home. And, perhaps, it’s fitting that Constantine’s house is where she died at age 79. After all, it had been his job several decades before to take care of the widow and her family when he and she were both young.

You see, Constantine had been a bodyguard for the Russian Imperial Family, and the widow who died in his spare bedroom above the barber shop was Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, the last survivor of the line of the Romanov Dynasty.

On a Trip to the Store

The two pretty girls in nurses uniforms casually strolled the aisles of the busy high street department store. A clerk was folding sweaters on one counter, and he didn’t notice them at first. After all, so many people came and went there, especially in the middle of the day. But soon, the pair began to attract the salesperson’s notice.

The two were acting like girls who were much younger than their faces showed. Clearly, the clerk would say later, it was obvious that they were related. That much was obvious. It was also obvious that the two were also beautiful. But he saw that the girls were picking up items–clothing, household items, tchotchkes–and laughing at them hysterically, putting them back in the wrong places, and they were whispering things to each other as they made their way around the store.

He approached the pair. “May I assist you?” the clerk offered. The girls blushed and giggled and whispered to each other. They ignored the clerk’s offer. He had the opportunity to examine them closer as they whispered back and forth. Their nurses uniforms were neat and tidy and clean–too much so, it seemed to the clerk, for them to have come from work to the store. Perhaps they were on their way to work and were only killing some time before their shifts. It was wartime, after all, and he had some empathy with young people who had to grow up in such an unsettled period of Russian history.

Finally, one of the girls, the taller one, shook her head and, in a perfect upper class accent, asked the clerk, “Sir, how does one acquire these items?”

“What do you mean?” the clerk asked incredulously. “Why, you pay for them, of course!” he said. This caused the girls to giggle again. “Thank you, sir,” the taller girl said. After another whispered exchange, the girls turned from the man and ran out of the store hand in hand.

The clerk shook his head and sighed as he returned to his sweaters. He didn’t understand this younger generation.

After they returned to the palace, the Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Olga, the eldest daughters of Czar Nicholas II, asked their lady-in-waiting, “How do you use money for things?”