Lohmann: Her childhood friend fled her home in Ukraine, now she's headed to Richmond Bill Lohmann
Apr 7, 2022
As a child growing up in Ukraine, Yana Morris was very shy. Then, at age 6, she met Anzhelika, who taught her “how to laugh, get in and out of trouble, and be a kid.” “She always had this fire in her belly, and was never afraid of anything,” Morris said of her friend. They were children of perestroika — the dramatic restructuring of the Soviet Union’s economic and political system in the late 1980s, which presaged the end of the USSR — and witnessed as “our families lost their savings, their jobs, their sanity as the union fell apart,” Morris said. With shortages all over, the friends shared everything from food to clothes. They had one decent dress between them, Morris recalled: Anzhelika would wear it Monday through Wednesday, wash it Thursday, then Morris would wear it over the weekend. “For the highs and lows of my childhood, I always had her courage and her energy to get through things,” Morris said. “This is why I need to be her rock now.” The friends took very different paths beginning in their teen years. Morris wound up in the United States and, last August, Richmond. Her friend stayed in Ukraine and made her life there — until the Russians invaded in February.
Anzhelika Ivanisova and Yana Morris were together in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2014. Morris wound up in Richmond last August. courtesy of Yana Morris
When war came to their front door, she fled their home in Kyiv to join their teen daughter who was in school in Poland. Her husband followed later, for three days making his way across western Ukraine by car and bus through territory under attack by Russian forces. “It was completely scary and horrific,” Morris said. “We didn’t really think he was going to make it.” Morris and her husband, Richard, eventually provided airfare for the couple, along with two others fleeing from Ukraine, to fly to Ireland, where a friend put them up and found them temporary jobs while they determined their next move, which is this: They hope to come to Richmond and, with the help of the Morrises, build a new life here.
RIGHT: Anzhelika Ivanisova, 46, an entrepreneur/restaurateur, and her husband, Volodymyr Shabanov, 50, a veterinarian, recently fled Ukraine with their daughter. Yana Morris, a childhood friend of Anzhelika, hopes to bring them to Richmond. Family photo
Morris flew to San Diego on Thursday, then crossed the border into Mexico on Friday to meet Anzhelika and her family who arrived there after a long journey from Europe (from Gdansk to Berlin to Munich to Madrid to Mexico City to Tijuana). They joined many other uprooted Ukrainians in line at the U.S. border to request “humanitarian parole” so they can enter the United States on a temporary basis. They’re pursuing the humanitarian parole avenue, rather than the normal visa process, because the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv is closed and embassies in nearby countries are overwhelmed with a backlog of requests. President Joe Biden said in a speech recently that the United States would welcome 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. Humanitarian parole is granted on a case-by-case basis, according to the Homeland Security website, and Morris knows there are no guarantees. At the moment, it appears those from Ukraine seeking entry have to wait about 48 hours at the border.
ABOVE: Childhood friends Yana Morris and Anzhelika Ivanisova stand in uniform during their days at an elementary school in northern Ukraine. 1984, courtesy of Yana Morris
“My biggest fear is that after everything they have been through and what we had to do, they are not allowed into the country,” said Morris, who secured a hotel room so the family could shower and eat. Morris also purchased warm-weather clothes for them, as many Ukrainians are arriving in Tijuana wearing the only clothes they have with them, often parkas and boots, she said. Despite her underlying fear, Morris is optimistic. On Saturday afternoon, in an email, Morris said she hoped they would be allowed into the United States later in the day. *** The Morrises moved to Richmond’s Fan District in August 2021 with their twins, who turn 4 next week, and a pair of Bernese Mountain Dogs. They had lived in New Jersey and worked in New York. She is chief editorial officer for ION Analytics, a job she handles remotely, and he formerly was a producer at CNN and Bloomberg. He now is a stay-at-home dad for Maya and Richie.
Richard was raised in Lynchburg, so Richmond is something of a compromise: He is closer to family, and she is convenient to air service to New York for her job. They want to get the word out about the impending (they hope) arrival of their friends so that the community might welcome them with opportunities to assimilate here. They are not raising money, only awareness of things the family will need, such as language classes, furniture for the apartment the Morrises are trying to arrange for them and employment. Readers can contact the Morrises if they’d like to help at ukr2rva@gmail.com. Anzhelika Ivanisova, 46, is an entrepreneur/restaurateur whose most recent restaurant was on a highway on the way to Kyiv, a contested territory in recent fighting. Volodymyr Shabanov, 50, is a veterinarian whose services were most welcome, Yana Morris said, on the couple’s recent stay in a farming community outside Dublin. While in Ireland, Anzhelika worked as a hotel housekeeper. “Their life redefines the definition of hard work,” Richard Morris said. “We know if given the right opportunities here, they will truly build a better life here than the one they left in Ukraine.” Their daughter, Valeriia Shabanova, is 15.
Yana (left) and Anzhelika (on the phone) were children of perestroika — the dramatic restructuring of the Soviet Union’s economic and political system in the late 1980s, which presaged the end of the USSR. courtesy of Yana Morris
She was a neighbor child that Anzhelika and Volodymyr adopted after her mother died when she was 4. Volodymyr was given an exemption to the currently required military service for Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60
because Ukrainian law states an adopted child should not have to lose a parent twice, said Yana Morris. *** Yana and Anzhelika stayed together in childhood, attending the same schools, as their parents moved around eastern Ukraine. “My mother’s Ukrainian, my dad is Russian,” said Yana Morris. “This is a typical family in Ukraine: someone is Russian, someone is Ukrainian. That’s why this war doesn’t make any sense.” Though their lives went in different directions — at age 16, Yana received a scholarship to study in England, which led to life and career in the West — their friendship has persevered. “She’s always had her own business,” Yana said of her friend. “She’s an extremely good chef.” Whatever the Ukrainians wind up doing here, “they will work hard,” Yana Morris said. Once Ivanisova and Shabanov arrive in the United States, there will be no government support. They will rely, at first, on the Morrises. “I will give them a little bit of stability,” Yana Morris said. “A roof, food and then we’ll figure out how they can exist here, how they can assimilate into Richmond. “I’m taking one step at a time.”