Vera Vasilyovna Frolova, two days away from being 96 years old, originally from St. Petersburg, Russia passed away peacefully in her sleep the morning of September 25, 2024.
Vera was born on September 27, 1928 in Selo Klikotki, Russia to Maria and Vasiliy Altukhov. A clerical error listed her birthday as October 7 on her passport, and this error somehow stayed with her official documents forever, to her amusement. In 1930, Vera and her parents moved to St. Petersburg, Vera’s beloved city, where she would live until she moved to the United States at the age of 80.
Vera’s adolescence was marked by World War II and the horrific 900 day Siege of Leningrad, a time of extreme cold and starvation that Vera and her younger brother Mikhail survived at the tender ages of 13 and 9. Vera often shared her memories of this time with her family and community, in the hopes that the world would never see such horrors again.
Vera loved dress-making from an early age, originally sewing beautiful creations for her dolls. At 16, she became an apprentice to a fashion atelier, creating original, intricate clothing that her clients treasured for years after her retirement. Several of her dresses in a delicate brushed wool were featured in a national exhibition on excellence in Russian artistry.
In 1949, she married Dmitry Frolov, a reconnaissance soldier native to St. Petersburg recently returned from the war. They would go on to have one daughter, Natasha, and twenty-six years of happy marriage before Dmitry’s untimely death in 1975.
In 2008, Vera joined her daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law in America in Reno, Nevada. Her zest for life continued in her new home – she had an English tutor, swam weekly, and hosted countless teas and lunches for her friends, among the closest of which was her son-in-law's parents who lived nearby. In 2022, Vera moved to Framingham, Massachusetts to be near her granddaughter and two great-grandchildren.
Vera is survived by her loving daughter Natasha and husband Alexander, her granddaughter Lena and husband Gregory, and her great-grandchildren Leon and Alexandra, as well as by her extended family in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and San Francisco.
Services will be held in the Advantage Funeral & Cremation Service / Wadsworth - Chiappini Funeral Home, 318 Union Avenue FRAMINGHAM, on Vera’s Saints Day of Monday September 30 from 12-2 PM.
The family has requested in lieu of flowers, that expressions of sympathy be made in Vera's memory to the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization, see www.vfw.org
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