‘Thank you for 26 years of utter happiness’ Yulia Navalnaya’s farewell message to her husband
On March 1, Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was buried in Moscow. Thousands of mourners showed up for his funeral, despite a heavy police presence and repeated attempt by the Russian authorities to prevent a public ceremony from occurring at all. Yulia Navalnaya, the politician’s widow, currently lives outside of Russia and was unable to attend the funeral. She published an Instagram post bidding her husband farewell.
Lyosha, thank you for 26 years of utter happiness. Yes, even for the last three years of happiness. For the love, for always supporting me, for making me laugh even from prison, and for always thinking about me.
I don’t know how to live without you, but I’ll try to live in a way that will make you happy and proud of me up there. I don’t know if I’ll manage or not, but I’ll try.
I know we’ll meet again one day. There are so many stories I haven’t told you, so many songs I’ve saved in my phone for you — silly ones, funny ones, and, to be honest, awful ones, but they’re songs about us, and I wanted so much to show them to you. I wanted so badly to see you listen to them, laugh, and then hug me.
I love you forever. Rest in peace.
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