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Maple C. Hughes, Jr., my father, was an adventurous man who always dreamed of going to a developing country and creating his own little empire. When I was a child, he dreamed of going to Brazil and Costa Rica. As an adult, he considered moving to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Andorra, Spain and Portugal. When the former Soviet Union fell apart, he became highly interested in Russia and Ukraine. He also talked of Bolivia and South Africa. He actually dreamed of having homes in two separate countries -- one would be his summer home and the other his winter home so that he would never have to live in a cold climate. He adored the Black Sea and it's wonderful summer weather. He wasn't too happy about the winters, but he always intended to buy a home some place warmer to get away from the Ukrainian winters.
My father's greatest disappointment was that no one in our family shared his dream. His brothers and sisters wanted to remain in America. My brothers and I were of the same mind. My father would not be deterred. He told us he would find a wife who wanted this dream and he would start his great adventure with her outside the boundaries of America. This is how he came to meet Roxana Yani. He looked for a wife in mail order bride catalogues. He even placed advertisements in foreign newspapers announcing his intentions. He received over 200 responses from women throughout Eastern Europe and Russia.
He and Roxana corresponded for several months before my father went to meet her in Odessa in April, 1996. Roxana presented herself as a single young woman looking for a husband who would treat her well and take care of her. She stated that she had never been married and that she was attracted to my much older father because she herself had been abandoned by her own father at a young age. There was talked that after their marriage, she would quit her job at a photo shop and go to the University. We know now that Roxana lied about her marital status. She has in fact been married before to a man who now sits in a Siberian prison for murder.
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