Dedicated
Volunteer
Following World War II,
thousands of people, uprooted from their homes, reached Canada where they
were commonly referred to as DPs, short for "Displaced Persons.” Maria
Blagoveshchensky was one of them, a 20-year-old native of Pskov, a city
200 miles west of St. Petersburg, Russia, where her mother and grandmother
were killed, 1944, when Russian planes dropped bombs during the recapture
of their territory lost to Germany in 1941. A high school graduate in her
native city, on her Canadian arrival, January 1948, she spent a year working
as a nurse’s aid, Brockville Ontario Hospital, before electing to move
to Toronto to study bookkeeping and accounting. Over the next 40 years,
Maria was employed as a bookkeeper by two companies, Yolles Furniture and
Nubar Graphics. Active in Toronto’s Russian community for years, she has
been Chair, Russian Canadian Cultural Aid Society, since 1982, Treasurer,
Russian Orthodox Holy Trinity Church and Vice-Principal of its Church School
for the past 25 years, and a member of the Russian Orthodox Immigration
Services of Canada. Her dedication to helping people, young and old, was
recognized, 1995, when a surprise party, attended by more than 500 people,
saluted and honoured Maria, above right, for her many years of dedication
to Ontario’s Russian community. [Photo, courtesy Maria Blagoveshchensky]