Funds will help woman walk again

For 28 years, Nadezhda Pazova has been living with physical pain. When she was 25, she and her husband and small son were in a rail accident. Nadezhda lost part of her left leg.

Then a young woman who was a model and clothing designer working in a gallery in Russia, she has since  struggled valiantly over the years, battling the physical pain through even greater mental anguish. Six months after the accident, her husband left her. She raised their son alone. She lost her job during the period of perestroika. Still in Russia, she now lives on a small pension.

In 2004, her son was murdered.

In 2006, her last family member, her mother, died.

Now Nadezhda is just trying to care for herself, and to relieve the constant pain caused by the metal frame of the prosthetic leg she has worn for nearly three decades.

“Since 2004 I have been going outside seldom, as every time when I do shopping it is finished with my leg rubbed till it bleeds,â€� Nadezhda wrote in a letter to  her friend Pavel Kostyukov, who is a cook at High Watch Farm in Kent. “I have no opportunity to have another artificial limb; and what is made here is impossible to use.â€�

“She hardly goes anywhere anymore,� said Kostyukov, who has arranged a fundraising concert for his friend here on May 30. “The prosthesis was painful from the day she got it, but it is much worse now.

Kostyukov came here as a student diplomat, representing the Russian space academy. He stayed because he loved the life and the opportunities here. Unfortunately, the mechanical engineer has not been able to find a job in his field, but is happy to be cooking at High Watch.

He recently heard of his friend’s distress while talking to his sister, who is still in Russia.  

He mentioned to her that he gets orthotic inserts from a Torrington company called Hanger Inc. His sister wondered if they did any charitable work and might be able to help Nadezhda.

Kostyukov presented Nadezhda’s dilemma to Hanger technician John Huber.

“Two days later, John called me back,’ Kostyukov said. He said the company would provide the prosthesis and the cost of the fitting. “We just needed to get her here.�

The artificial limb and fitting would have cost about $10,000. Kostyukov and some friends, including retired pastor Carl Franson, are working to raise the airfare for Nadezhda, which could be as high as $4,000.

She will also need to pay for a passport and visa.

To help encourage donations, Fransen called on his friend Michael Brown, a popular singer/musician, music teacher at the Salisbury School and leader and founder of the gospel choir at that school and The Hotchkiss School.

“When Michael heard the story, a tear rolled down his cheek, and he said, ‘I’m on board,’� Franson said.

Brown will perform in a benefit concert Saturday, May 30, at 7 p.m. at the Canaan United Methodist Church in North Canaan. Free-will offerings will be collected.

For more information, call Kostyukov at 860-596-4159 or Franson at 860-485-5490. Tax-deductible donations may be sent to PO Box 636, North Canaan, CT 06018. Checks should be made payable to “CUMC,� with “Hope� in the memo.

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