He got the shelter in the home of the couple, Andrew and Lisa, people that he will remember and thank forever. When it rains, it pours. When he was staying with Andrew and Lisa, life delivered him a cruel blow. He became seriously ill with a rare disease, at times hanging between life and death. His new Canadian friends did everything to save him.
He was placed in a hospital, and went through a complex surgery. Somehow the story of his misadventures reached the Government of Canada and by the decision of Ministry of Foreign Affairs his wife and daughter were allowed to come to Canada. In the meantime doctors did everything they could to save his life before they finally succeeded. With recovery came another blow: he lost his voice. He had to say goodbye to the acting profession.
“I got a very rare autoimmune disease: Wegener granulomatosis. As an exception, by the order of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada, I was admitted to the hospital, where I died on the second day, I was in a coma for a month. I was finally saved, but the tube in the throat has damaged the vocal cords, so my vocal career was over. I was alone, abandoned and unwanted. Scary. My wife was brought to Canada by the actors’ union. I'm in the hospital, weighing just 40 kilo, having trouble speaking, with hair lost after chemotherapy ... Do I still have to describe? Well, I survived.”
Whatever happened to him, he had to get on his feet, learning the language, getting a profession, a family. He couldn’t go back to Russia, only in Canada doctors were able to provide him with the unique medication to keep him healthy. Meanwhile he gets new acquaintances, one of them gives him a job in his bakery. He learned to bake cookies. The most important thing was that he was alive, he was sure he could overcome all mishaps and beat all odd. At this point in his life, he got another blow: his wife left him.
His little daughter made a courageous decision to stay with daddy. It was his daughter who finally became a major incentive in his life. He alone educated, fed, clothed her, drove her to school, and most importantly, he taught her to sing. He was determined that his daughter had to do what he was deprived of, she should become a singer and perform on stage as he once did. He tried a lot in his emigrant life, and suddenly and quite unexpectedly came up with a business that has become his new profession: guiding small tours in the city of Toronto. The business which gradually became very popular, and for one simple reason: he fell in love with Toronto and learned so much about it that even people who have lived their entire lives here were absolutely amazed.And if you spice it up with his natural humor and sincere generosity, it would be quite natural why those who had ever attended his tours, remembered them for a very long time. As, perhaps, our viewers will do as well. And his daughter did become a singer. She now lives in New York and performs on the stage, and her father goes to her concerts, and probably thinks how bizarre and yet fair life actually is.
“I hope, day trips in my minivan will be loved by all travelers wishing to see and hear Niagara Falls, taste Ontario wines at the local wineries, have a look at Curve Lake Indian reservation, admire the beauty of the St. Lawrence River, or perhaps, Petroglyphs Provincial Park, a sacred place for local Indians with drawings carved on stones, the mysterious messages of ancient Aboriginal Canadians.
Socrates once said his famous phrase, “Do your thing and know thyself,” and I try to live by this principle and continue to learn about myself through my profession, thoughts and real life. In my present work, I am my own director, screenwriter, actor, and even critic. When people ask me what makes my company so different, I provide a very simple answer to this quite a dangerous question: the tour guide’s personality. My tours last from 4 to 12 hours. Sometimes we cannot stay with someone a one single hour, but if people come to me, and then refer me to friends and family, then objectively speaking, I do my job at a good professional and ethical level.”