Others – Maria F

Inspiring others. Maria Fernanda is also the president and founder of Mujeres por Mujeres (Women for Women Ecuador), a nonprofit organization that promotes the advancement of women into leadership positions.

Maria F. hails from Mexico and has a passion for helping people. When she first came to Canada, she didn’t really know how to go after her goals of making the lives of others better, but she decided to pursue work in the medical field.

Maria said that there is a very long waitlist and some people require more urgent care than others. She wants to help everyone who comes through the door, both in setting up appointments and receiving care. Unfortunately, there are few spaces available for new patients.

In Kiev, Maria engaged in the Red Cross and hospital work, and in September, the 50th anniversary of her arrival in Russia was celebrated with great festivities, during which she was visited by her son, Nicholas II, who came without his wife. Empress Alexandra wrote to the Tsar: “When you see Motherdear, you must rather sharply tell her how pained you are, that she listens to slander and does not stop it, as it makes mischief and others would be delighted, I am sure, to put her against me…” Maria did ask Nicholas II to remove both Rasputin and Alexandra from all political influence, but shortly after, Nicholas and Alexandra broke all contact with the Tsar’s family.

Since Maria Feodorovna steadfastly believed Nicholas and his family survived, she firmly regarded (famously known as “Anna Anderson”) as a fraud falsely claiming to be her granddaughter, . Maria vehemently opposed her daughter Olga Alexandrovna meeting with the imposter, which Olga did in 1925. Olga came to the conclusion Schanzkowska was an imposter, noting afterwards in a letter to former adjunct Anatole Mordvinov that Maria Feodorovna “isn’t interested at all” in the imposter and the dowager empress “opposed my trip, but I had to go for the sake of the family.” She also wrote that Schanzkowska’s supporters subsequently accused Maria Feodorovna of ordering Olga (as well as others who knew Anastasia and refuted Schanzkowska’s claim) to reject Shanzkowska’s claim to be Anastasia, which Olga called a “huge lie”.