The Nurse's Diary - Sergei Kourdakov

Recently I received an e-mail that made me catch my breath.  Sheila U., the daughter of the nurse that helped save Sergei Kourdakov’s life, had just located her mother’s diary.  And attached to the e-mail were photocopies.  Yes.  That nurse.  Her diary.

It isn’t possible, it just isn’t possible, I kept telling myself as my eyes flew across the scrawled handwritten pages.  The date at the top of the diary entry was September 4, 1971.  That meant the pages she sent me were written forty-four years ago this very month.  And the woman who wrote the entry was the nurse who helped save Sergei Kourdakov’s life hours after he jumped into the sea off the coast of Canada on September 3, 1971.  Sergei had just defected from the USSR.  Later it would be a startling revelation, and a story that she shared with her daughter over the years. Below is an excerpt from the diary, some personal information has been removed.

From The Diary of Ruth Stafford:

Sept. 4, 1971

Sergie Khourdakov, the Russian sailor, jumped from a Russian fishing boat in Tasu Sound [British Colombia, Canada] about midnight and nearly 8 hours later crawled up on the beach behind Sander’s.... And there he was, blue and vacant-eyed with bleeding hands, feet & legs on the cold cement with only a pair of wet, cut-off pants….  It was obvious he was suffering from exhaustion & exposure (it had been a cold, windy, rainy, stormy night) and was near collapse.

It was several hours before he began to warm up with blankets, hot water bottle & sips of tea, during which he’d awaken confused & frightened.  When he became more rational he suddenly pulled out a plastic bag from his shorts.  It contained photos, and other personal papers which were all wet.  We laid them out to dry.  This was his first indication that he realized we were friends and he was soon trying to converse; learned “yes,” “no,” “okay,” “Thank-you-very much.”  Bob said that for a time he was worried about him as he had an irregular heartbeat.  However, color & vital signs improved rapidly and by 1 p.m. he was jolly & had eaten a light meal.  The RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] arrived & we received some information from him via…a Russian electrician.

The mine [Tasu was a mining community] bought him a set of clothes & he gave Bob his switch-blade as a token.  He turned up his collar jauntily & sauntered off happily with the RCMP.

We are convinced that his physical fitness & determination & youth played a major part in his survival in such cold waters for such a length of time.  He was tall with powerful chest, shoulders arms & legs – and rather attractive, I must add.

After several days in jail in Prince Rupert, Vancouver, & an unknown length of time in Quebec City he was granted political asylum….

Even though Sergei had told me about the day he defected from the Soviet Union, he left out the dramatic, anguished details about his fight for survival in the treacherous sea.  I know he didn’t want to alarm me, and he certainly didn’t want my sympathy.  I was overwhelmed with conflicting emotions as I read the pages from the nurse’s diary.  For me, seeing the actual written words brought Sergei back to life for a few short minutes.  I was reminded of his strength and humor.  It was hard to read that Sergei barely survived, that his body was bruised and blue.  In spite of everything, Sergei’s fun-loving personality was quite evident when he turned up the collar on his shirt and excitedly walked towards his new life and freedom.  In every way, Sergei was larger than life itself.

 Actual diary page superimposed over Sergei Kourdakov's picture.