My sister, Larisa Vaindiner was born in Russia on March 18, 1970. She passed away very young, only 28 years old. As a child, Larisa was a very smart and play-ful girl. Our dad, whom she loved very much,died suddenly when Larisa was only six, and her life was never the same after that.

Despite this devastating event, Larisa studied well in school and had good friends. She liked to read and loved music. She studied music for 8 years in music school and played piano beautifully. She was a good, caring, and loving daughter and sister. She was a very sensitive person. Whenever she thought there was even a remote possibility of inflicting any pain on anybody, she would rather suffer herself then allow anybody else to suffer. She was a very trusting person and would think others would know better, or are better then her while she was the one who taught others a lot. Very delicate and tender in every way, non-assuming, non-judgmental, she wanted to be good and to be loved.

Larisa was a good dresser and even though there was very little money for the dresses, she would find the most beautiful and amaz-ing things to wear not only for herself but for everybody in the family. She was a very creative cook and would try the most exotic recipes nobody else would attempt. She thought she was not very strong but demon-strated her strength and courage when she decided to start her graduate school studies in Psychology in GWU while her health was already not that great. Psychology was a completely new field for her -- her college degree from Russia was in technology. But she was a brave girl and overcame the diffi-culties we thought she would never be able to overcome. She faced her challenges with courage and remained a loving and caring person.

Larisa was a beautiful, tall, and slim girl with dark hair and dark caring and smart eyes. She was a beautiful person in every way. She was bringing beauty to this world that was not very kind to her, but she tried very hard to make the best out of it anyway. Her grace, beauty, tenderness, fairness, and trust in goodness in others were above and beyond what I have seen. She did not know herself how good she was, and I wish there was a way to let her know that. To let her know that she is loved and missed very much and even more so as time goes by.