Our agency was approached by a man who had lived in America for a long time and had recently returned to Russia. His request was an unusual one.
About thirty years earlier, before leaving for a job in America, he had a fiancée — an eighteen-year-old girl from Moscow. Right before his departure they quarreled. He lost his temper and left without thinking about what would come next. Overseas he sometimes remembered her and thought that perhaps they could still get back together.
But things turned out otherwise: in all those years they never met, never wrote to each other, and never called. Back in Russia, he went to the address where she had lived. The apartment had long since been sold. No one knew where the girl was or what had become of her, and no one could explain anything. That is when he came to us.
Thirty Years Later
For us it was an unusual story. So many years had passed, yet it was clear from our client that he still lived in the past and still had feelings for this girl.
The passage of time was a difficulty in itself. In thirty years a person may change their surname, address, city, even country. Neighbors move away, phone numbers change, acquaintances lose touch. And the records of that era — the Soviet years and the first years of the CIS — were kept only on paper. By regulation they were stored for 10 to 30 years and then destroyed, and the paper itself deteriorated over time.
But such things do not stop us: even in the most difficult circumstances we find a way to a solution and get results.
A Truth No One Expected
Logically, one could assume that the girl had long since married, had a family and children, and was doing well. In that case, finding her would not have been very hard. No one could have imagined that things would turn out otherwise — and so tragically.
At the time of their quarrel, the girl was about to spend the weekend with her parents at their dacha outside Moscow. On the way, at a pedestrian crossing, she was hit by a truck. She spent three days in the hospital and then died.
All this time our client had known nothing. The quarrel before his departure had been their last meeting. For thirty years he had remembered a girl who was no longer alive, thinking that someday everything could be put right.
Not knowing holds a person tighter than the bitterest truth.
What Happened Next
For our client, the story became even heavier. He asked us to find the girl’s mother and the grave where his fiancée was buried. We established both and passed the information on to him.
As far as we know, he is now in touch with her mother, and the two of them look after the grave together.
We take on searches for people with whom contact was lost decades ago — former sweethearts, friends, relatives. Sometimes a search ends in a joyful reunion, sometimes in a bitter truth. But even such a truth lets a person stop waiting.