‘To me personally, she’s the world’: A woman’s getting away from Russia to Canada for love
While the town of Halifax celebrates Pride, simply over about ten years ago Elena Ivanova had been anything that is doing. Dating a guy, also she felt wasn’t her own though she liked women, and living a life. It took a voice that is canadian her to make a journey throughout the ocean to “freedom. ”
Ivanova was created in Ivanovo, nearly 300 kilometers northeast of Moscow. Understood when since the “City of Brides” because of its then textile that is large-scale, the business enterprise has since diminished after the autumn regarding the USSR. Ivanova went along to school within the town to master architecture and began working at a large architectural and design solutions firm alongside her mom at the chronilogical age of 24.
Her dating a woman was something she still couldn’t pursue primarily due to family pressure though it was years before Russia’s ban on gay “propaganda”, Ivanova said.
“It absolutely works, i am talking about I happened to be willing to destroy my entire life to complete whatever my relatives desired me personally to do merely to satisfy them, ” she said in a job interview with worldwide News.
During the right time her mom as well as other family relations had been asking her why she wasn’t dating and expected her to alternatively develop into a “housewife, ” she said.
Her mother forced her into wearing heels and dresses and changing who she had been. She stated at one point her mother noticed a guy, known as Dima, who arrived to get results and told Ivanova she should begin dating him before an other woman did.
She did for eight months, nonetheless it had been “the worst time within my life I would personally state. ”
Surrounding this time, Ivanova started speaking with a lady called Meg rock from Canada on an on-line dating internet site. She states they weren’t on the website in search of dates, Stone wished to discover Russian while Ivanova ended up being wanting an escape from catholic singles vs catholic match her life.
Fulfilling rock, she stated, ended up being the possibility on her behalf to be herself and she, in change, discovered more about the girl whom she says was “so big. ”
Elena Ivanova, left, satisfies Meg at Boryspil airport Elena Ivanova
And Ivanova found rock, now simply over 50, passed her energy onto her prompting her to travel to Ukraine and fulfill her friend that is canadian at Airport in Kyiv, the main city city.
If they came across, she states that’s whenever she believes her life began.
“I think very nearly i will count my life that is real from point on. Before like I became asleep. So it almost seems”
Nevertheless the beginning of her new lease of life, she claims, nearly ended the moment it started. After meeting Stone, she allow her mom know there is a letter inside her desk explaining her relationship with Stone, being released to her parents in that note, and it also prompted her mom, her buddies and her boyfriend to phone her times that are numerous her to come back. She didn’t.
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Her escape to Canada, nonetheless, found a understanding after an encounter along with her household in Kyiv. Her mom had talked with Ivanova, telling her she had been coming to meet up with rock in Kyiv exactly what ended up being said to be a gathering changed into both her moms and dads looking to get her to return to Russia.
“The idea would be to kidnap me and back drag me to Ivanovo, ” Ivanova stated.
The now 38-year-old told rock to go back for their apartment in an effort “to conserve her” as she ended up being taken to a McDonald’s.
“They barricaded me aided by the tables, they might not permit me to get anywhere, ” she explained.
She then phoned rock and explained just what took place, leading rock to reach during the restaurant and after “fighting” the four of these had been removed from the restaurant by protection and taken to law enforcement station. Following questioning by police, Ivanova said police released them and Ivanova had not been obligated to get back along with her parents to Russia though she claims her moms and dads left Ukraine along with her passport.
The set discovered they necessary to arrive at Canada, but with out a passport, visited the consulate that is canadian Kyiv. She said the consul wanted to assist but could just provide a place that is safe. They informed her she could request security if on Canadian soil, but to have here she would want her passport to get a visa.
Through efforts of the friend in Russia, Ivanova surely could regain her passport additionally the few left for Turkey hoping of purchasing a watercraft and making their way over the ocean. Throughout their two-month stay static in the country, she discovered to sail so they really both will make their means over the seas.
“Otherwise we’d hugely be endangering our everyday lives, ” she stated.
Elena Ivanova, right, learns how exactly to sail from an teacher. Elena Ivanova
Ivanova and rock bought a yacht that is 14-metre and set out in the water in June 2006.
The journey had not been easy, they trekked over the mediterranean and beyond, made their way via a hurricane within the Atlantic Ocean, journeyed to the Pacific through the Caribbean Sea and Panama Canal, before arriving at land in Victoria in April 2007.
The Atlantic Ocean after having a hurricane while Elena Ivanova and Meg are cruising the waters. Elena Ivanova
Subsequently, the set happen making use of their watercraft to visit the seas. Stone’s house had to be sold as a result of price of the day at Canada from Turkey, and she presently works being a programmer. Ivanova states she attempted to find act as an architect but was not able to achieve this, and alternatively published book in Russian to share with the tale of the journey called “Talking towards the Moon”, and hopes their tale may help other folks, particularly women.
“I would like to enable females to simply simply take back once again their life. I would like them become pleased, truly delighted, I would like them to smile, to accomplish things that are crazy become strong, ” she stated.
The few stumbled on Halifax this past week-end and went to Halifax Pride, which she stated they really discovered by accident on observing Pride flags and had been told by many people that the activities had been place that is taking.
Elena Ivanova and Meg in Halifax in July 2017. Elena Ivanova
Expected just exactly how she seems since going to Canada, Ivanova stated she’s happy.
“I’m entirely various person now. I’m happy. Personally I think great. Personally I think liberated in a lot of means them all that I can’t count. There’s no straight back for me personally. We have become finally where I always wished to be. ”
