To Russia with love

For Vera

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I don't have a religious bone in my body. Nevertheless I keep the family icon in its traditional corner facing the door and when I looked around for something Russian to blip there it was, with the just the faces of mother and child visible through the protective metal cladding.

It was a huge shock to me when I heard today that blipper Veraluna had died suddenly in January. Like several others I had been puzzled by, and then concerned about, the sudden cessation of her journal that recorded her day to day life in St Petersburg with her three young daughters. Vera Dorn, who was from Germany but married to a Russian, was a talented photographer and musician with a vitality and zest for life that she clearly conveyed to her children. She was much too young to die and her daughters are much too young to lose their mother.

Katherine Ellis who met Vera on a visit to Russia in December has written a moving tribute in her blip today.
Another blipper has published this memorial.

I've been feeling very sad about this and as a result I haven't managed to look at many journals but hope to try and catch up soon.