Archdeacon Michael Mukhachev reposed on November 17, 2012, leaving behind his wife and two children.

Since Dcn. Michael’s death, Matushka Elena and the children have been living 5 miles from Kostroma. Without a car, it’s impossible to reach their village along its nearly impassable and dilapidated roads, so our benefactors helped them get one, which the family still uses for their constant trips from the village to the city and back.

Matushka is burdened with many everyday issues that are doubly difficult for a frail woman with no husband, especially car maintenance and home repairs. Their home is old and dilapidated and getting worse every year, but they don’t have the funds for any major repairs. Dcn. Michael and Matushka bought the house many years ago, unsuspecting of what huge problems it concealed. Now it’s Matushka’s biggest problem. The wooden foundation to the house is completely rotten. The logs have practically turned to dust.

The family’s budget consists of state assistance and the meager salary of a church singer. Their main help comes from the Fund’s benefactors, without which they wouldn’t be able to get by. They have no other relatives to help them, and all of their money goes towards maintaining the house and car and the children’s schooling and medical treatments. Unfortunately, the children can’t take any additional classes or lessons due to the family’s financial situation.

The younger daughter has a serious blood disease that requires special medical supervision, and Matushka’s mother is disabled and in need of constant care from her many years of battling cancer.

They can’t even buy winter clothing and shoes every year. Such is the quiet, daily life of the reposed Dcn. Michael’s family.

Michael Anatolievich Mukhachev was born to a working family on June 7, 1972. He dreamed of becoming a soldier, and it was in his fourth year at the Military Academy that Dcn. Michael came to faith and was baptized at Theophany Cathedral in Kostroma. Then he entered a theological school, where he met his future wife.

At the end of his second year, the young couple got married, and a month later, Michael was ordained to the diaconate at Theophany Cathedral, where he served until 2011. Then he was transferred to the Resurrection Cathedral due to his illness.

The family didn’t have any children for a long time. Then, after seven years of waiting and praying, the Lord gave them their first daughter, Barbara. Two years later, their second daughter, Sonya, was born.

In 2006, the couple was able to buy an old home and they moved to the village. The family still lives in the same village in the same house. A lot of money had to be invested in the house, and there are no decent roads leading there, but at the time, for a couple that was exhausted from renting apartments, it seemed like Paradise. Finally, they had their own home.

Matushka had to learn how to drive. Dcn. Michael had a license, but he didn’t like to drive, and later, he couldn’t. It was then that Matushka started noticing that he was having frequent, severe headaches. He didn’t complain, but endured them in silence. At her insistence, he underwent an examination that revealed he had a brain tumor.

His life was divided into before and after.

They began to look for doctors and started a long and difficult course of treatment. Throughout the entire period of his treatment, Dcn. Michael didn’t miss a single service, and when he could no longer serve the entire service, he asked to at least read one small litany. But he never missed a service. Matushka would take him to the church and back.

Throughout the 6 years of his illness, Dcn. Michael underwent many rounds of chemotherapy and head irradiation. Later, they found some people who organized and financed a trip to a clinic in Israel for Dcn. Michael. There was hope, but in the end, it was too late. On Saturday, November 17, 2012, at 5:00 in the evening, Dcn. Michael reposed in the Israeli clinic, as if departing for his Heavenly ministry.

There are few servants of the Lord so zealous as was Dcn. Michael.

Matushka says that almost nothing has changed in recent years—only the memories bring pain. The family is an example of amazing modesty, continuing to live as did their dearly departed husband and father.