Captivated By Him

The letters I receive from female readers reveal that they either had a crush on Sergei or felt attracted to him.  I can certainly relate to that.  Everyone has such wonderful things to say about Sergei.  It doesn’t surprise me since Sergei had an outgoing personality.  His enthusiasm for his new life in the U.S. was always apparent.  Sergei would often say whatever was on his mind and his honesty was refreshing, something we weren’t used to hearing.

When I met with my former boss this past year, we shared a lot of interesting and tender memories.  Sergei had stayed with the Logie family for a short time and he reminded me that both of his very young daughters had developed crushes for Sergei.  He also told me an amusing anecdote about the time he and Sergei were leaving a meeting in the Pentagon.  “Sergei walked up to a young woman in the hallway and told her that she was very pretty.”  Mr. Logie laughed as he recalled the story, “She was quite surprised by that.  She didn’t know what to say and kept on walking . . . away from us!”

I remember how Sergei asked me to go out with him, only a few hours after we met.  He sat on the edge of my desk at work, leaned over and quietly said, “I would like for you to go out with me on Saturday.”  It wasn’t a question.  I liked Sergei’s outspoken approach.  Captivated!  I like that word.  It’s a good descriptive word, as is enthralled, fascinated, or awestruck.  You could use any or all of those adjectives when talking about Sergei Kourdakov.  He had that effect on everyone.  Whether you met Sergei in person or read his book, people were captivated by him.