Be Happy No More: The Pain and Suffering of a Failed Russian/American Marriage

By Walter M. Eisenstein

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 8, 2010
• ISBN: 9781453569313

Walter M. Eisenstein

Walter M. Eisenstein is a retired City Manager, having spent the majority of his working life in service to local governments. He began his career right out of high school working as a laborer with his home town water and sewer department in Sidney, Ohio. 10 years from high school graduation in 1960, he entered into study at the Indiana University School of Medicine, graduating 2 ½ years later with a B.S. Degree in Public Health in 1972. Mr. Eisenstein, upon graduation was hired as the Village Manager of Lincolnshire, Illinois. Having lost his wife, Joann to cancer in 1977 leaving him with 4 children, Maryann, Michael, Robert and Anthony to raise alone, he started his own consulting business specializing in remediation supervision of hazardous sites in Texas, California and Montana. In 1990 Mr. Eisenstein enrolled at Montana State University to work on a Master of Public Administration degree, graduating in 1992 having earned his MPA . Mr. Eisenstein then continued his service to local governments, managing cities and towns in Indiana and Michigan. In February of 2006 Mr. Eisenstein took a sabbatical from local governments and moved to Tver, Russia in order to be near the woman he loved, Maria. Maria, and Walter’s relationship with her, is the subject of this book. The story spans 4 years in their lives and describes in detail the love, caring and support Walter provided Maria, both financially and emotionally through a series of on again/off again relationship changes. The story also highlights the terrible and multiple heartbreaks that Walter endured, culminating in marriage to Maria and then her puzzling disappearance after 8 short months. Hopefully, any of the male readers of this story who may have thoughts of following in his footsteps, will take some serious lessons from Walter’s experiences

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Be Happy No More

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The Pain and Suffering of a Failed Russian/American Marriage

Walter M. Eisenstein

Copyright © 2010 by Walter M. Eisenstein.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2010912937

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4535-6930-6

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4535-6929-0

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4535-6931-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

CHAPTER ONE

She Simply Vanished

It is a cold but sunny fall day outdoors in beautiful Bozeman, Montana. Inside it is warm and as I begin my day, I am filled with excitement and jubilation because this is the day that my beautiful young wife Maria, returns to the States from a 5 week vacation in Rzhev, Russia to visit her family and her friends. Although we were living in North Carolina when Maria left for Russia in September, we planned for me to move back to Montana while she was abroad. Rather than going through the trouble and expense of changing her itinerary, I simply purchased her a new ticket from Atlanta to Bozeman for October 23rd. I made her a hotel reservation for the night of October 22nd because she was scheduled to land in Atlanta @ 1:40P.M. on the 22nd and no more flights were available on that date into Bozeman. I spoke to Maria two days earlier and although she was tired from her trip, she was excited to come to Montana. She said that she missed me and that she would call me from Atlanta after she got to her hotel.

During the first part of the day on the 22nd, I tried to keep myself busy; but it was hard not to think of Maria and as 1:40 approached, I became very nervous and anxious. 1:40 P.M. came and went and I have had no call. And now I am very worried. At 2:30 P.M., I called her cell and got a message that the party that I am calling is unavailable. This was highly unusual because Maria never shuts her cell off. I continued to try her cell all afternoon to no avail. I called my sister Ann, who lives in Columbia, South Carolina and asked for her help. She called the hotel where Maria was to have stayed and they reported that she had not checked in as yet and it is now 8:30 P.M. in Atlanta. Something has happened to her cell I thought, and although I still haven’t heard from my wife, I decided to go to bed and try to sleep. If for no other reason than it will make the time pass quickly and I was sure that I would see her at the Bozeman airport in the morning and everything will be okay. I started to prepare for bed at 7:30 P.M., and just as I pulled the covers up, my phone rang. I glanced at the clock and it showed 7:50 P.M. Mountain Time which is 9:50 P.M. Eastern. I looked at the caller ID as I said Hello and it showed restricted. It was Maria and she began to speak very rapidly so that I could not interrupt her at all. Her voice trembled as if frightened and she said, Hello Walter, I am safe and I am with friends. I am just calling to tell you not to go to the airport in the morning, I will not be there. I need to think. I need a week. I will call you in a week. I interjected, Maria! She continued, I said I will call you in a week" and just hung up the phone.

I was in shock to say the least. Two days prior, she was fine on the phone. She asked if I had found a nice apartment for us and she asked me to describe the details to her. As I said before, she added that she missed me terribly and that she was looking forward to being in our new home in Bozeman. I could not wait for the week to pass for her call, so on Monday the 26th of October, I tried to file a missing persons report with the Bozeman Police Department. A young officer, after I told him that the last time I spoke to her was on Thursday night when she called me from Atlanta, said that she is not missing, she is simply gone and refused to take any other information. On Tuesday, I phoned the local FBI office here in Bozeman. I told the agent that my wife was missing and I wished for him to take a report. He advised that I needed to go to the Bozeman Police. I answered that I had done so already and he responded, Do it again! On Wednesday, I returned to the local police station and received the same answers. I did however, learn that my former friend and neighbor, Bill Dove, former Chief of Detectives for the City of Bozeman, was now the Chief of Security at Gallatin Field Airport here in Bozeman. I drove to the airport immediately and met with Bill. He and I discussed many possibilities for Maria’s disappearance. First, he checked the airline passenger manifest for October 22nd, and found that my Maria did in fact fly from Moscow to Atlanta but did not use either of the connecting flights, one to Wilmington, NC, which was the original plan, and the other, to Bozeman, MT. Bill and I talked about someone who she may have met on the long 10 hour flight from Moscow may have kidnapped her and is forcing her into trafficking drugs or even prostitution. He advised me that I should not count out the possibility of her death. On Bill’s advice, I called the Atlanta police that afternoon and the detective that I spoke to also refused to take a missing persons report. He did however tell me that he could assure me that he has no Jane Does in his morgue matching her description. That news was somewhat of a relief. Prior to that call, I could not help thinking the absolute worst. But where is she? If someone is holding her against her will, how will I ever know? How will she get word to me if she is in trouble?

CHAPTER TWO

How Did I Get Here

Thinking back now a few years or so, on how did I reach this place in my life: It was the first week of September, 2004 and I had just moved back to Montana after spending the last year in Florida taking care of my dear mother, who had been suffering from progressive dementia. She had now officially been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It was the summer of 2004 and after conferring with my sister Ann and my brother Chuck, we had all agreed that it was time to place mother in a nursing home. My sister Ann, who lives in Columbia, South Carolina wanted mother to be close to her and so we chose a nursing home there. It was in late August when we moved mother to South Carolina. I was then left in Florida to sell most of mother’s belongings and I listed her house for sale with a realtor. I had a deal on the house on the same day as I had listed it and so it was sold immediately. I then made plans to return to Montana where my children were all living. I call Montana my home as I have spent 22+ years there with my children and grandchildren. I purchased a small home for myself in Bozeman as my children all had their own homes. Once settled in my new place, I began searching on line for a bride to be. My wife had died of cancer back in 1977. I raised 4 children, a daughter Maryann and three boys, Michael, Robert and Anthony, all by myself and I was lonely with my bachelor life. I was most fascinated with the Russian women. They were all very beautiful and their profiles stated that they all possess the old family values and morals. I decided to then post my profile with a photo on what appeared to be the largest Russian Bride site on the internet. It was called Anastasia Web and is based in Bangor, Maine. After less than 24 hours of my placing my profile on the site, I had received two letters of interest from Russia. The first was a young lady from Moscow, 21 years of age who was a model. She explained that she was hoping to find an American to marry for the sole purpose of getting citizenship in the U.S. and have a chance to meet the persons in the right circles to get her a supermodel job. In exchange for this connection, she would give me all of the love and sex that I could ever want. I wrote her back and thanked her for being honest but declining her offer. The second lady was only 19 years of age and she lives in Tver, Russia, which is about a 2 and ½ hour drive north of Moscow. Her name is Olesya. Her letter to me began, My Dear Walter. I have been looking for my prince charming for many years. I think that I may have found him. My reaction was laughter of course and I began to just delete her letter but did not. There is a perfectly logical reason for this: You see I am a male of my species and therefore have been given, unlike the opposite, female of the species, two heads for which to think, a big one on my shoulders and a smaller one, usually hidden in my pants. Well, when a man of my age (63 at that time) receives a come on like Prince Charming thrown at him he is flattered to say the least and consulting both heads for advice, reached the conclusion—Why not write her back? After all, what do I have to do at the end of each day other than watch the beautiful Montana sunset each night?

I was reading the local paper, the Bozeman Dailey Chronicle, one Sunday afternoon and spotted an ad for Superintendent of Public Services for the town of West Yellowstone, Montana. I had taken myself out of public service back in March of 2003 due to a heart attack and a triple bypass. After a few months of recovery, I then moved to Fernandina Beach, Florida to take car of mother, who was already showing signs of dementia. Well, I applied for the position in West Yellowstone and was offered the job.

It was the fifth day of February, 2005, I had just started my first day of employment with the Town of West Yellowstone, Montana as their Superintendent of Public Services (Public Works Director). I am not 100% sure as to the real reason I accepted that position. At that time in my life, I had already managed 3 cities, spanning 30+ years, as City Manager. I had pretty much gotten over all of the stress working for local government and all that comes with it. I suppose that it was just boredom with just a jigger of loneliness thrown in that brought me to West Yellowstone. After my first full day at my new position, I returned home, booted up my computer and logged onto my account with Anastasia Web. I had another letter from Olesya and so, after making myself a sandwich, I composed a letter back to her and then I hit the send button and off it went. Tver, Russia is 10 hours ahead of Montana, so when it is 6 P.M. here it is 4 A.M. the next day in Moscow.

And so it began, we wrote each other maybe 2 or 3 times per week. The frequency was controlled by the amount of money I had placed on my account with the web site and it worked like this: I posted my profile, became a member for free, and I purchased credits which allowed me to correspond with as many ladies as I wanted. If I wrote one letter and sent it, the organization deducted 1 credit. If the lady answered it, they deducted 1 more credit. If another lady that I was unfamiliar with wished to write me, then I could see her profile and photos, and then make a decision as to whether or not to answer. If I opened her letter, then it cost me 1 credit. By being a member, I could continue to search their site and if I found someone else that I would