The twist comes, though, because she thought she was a believer, having been taken to be baptized by a dutiful grandmother who received religious training before the October Revolution in 1917 and before the ultimate demise of the church during Stalin’s reign of tyranny.

Tanya’s granny was a true believer; she grew up in a family of Russian priests.

As a result, some of her relatives suffered during Stalin’s purges in the 1930s as he tried to weed out enemies of the people and sent them to labor camps in Siberia. Tanya’s grandfather died in one of those camps.

While a small girl, Tanya thought believing meant going to church, lighting candles and bowing to the icons 40 times. There was a mystical feeling about it. She had no understanding about the living, omnipresent God, but she spent her life looking for something special so she could understand spiritual truths in life.

That something special was the Bible that her husband, Volodya, bought in the church, paying one-half month’s salary for it. It would be a few years, however, before she would understand it. It’s necessary to note that Tanya is a bright schoolteacher who is adept at simultaneously interpreting English into Russian, or vice versa.

“Still,” she says, “I didn't understand all things which God has written in the Bible. It's difficult for me.”

Years passed, and Volodya was invited on that trip to Cornell in upstate New York. Tanya says, “We spent the year in Ithaca, which is a gorgeous place. It is a real paradise on Earth. And we enjoyed all the year in America.