Browse the obituary of residing in the province of province1} for funeral details
Obituary for
Natalya “Natasha” Wilson (née Kanabeieva)
It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Natalya L’vovna “Natasha” Wilson (née Kanabeieva) on Thursday, March 6, 2025, at the age of 101 years.
Natasha was born in Harbin, China, on October 10, 1923, the daughter of Lev Nikolaevich Kanabeev and Anna Podtiaguin. Both came from noble families and were monarchists. He was a White Russian military officer and she trained and worked as a surgical nurse in the First World War. Her paternal grandfather had served the Emperor as a member of the Imperial Household Staff.
Natasha was predeceased by her first husband W. I. Lopato, a businessman in Harbin and their son Michel Lopato (2000) and grandson Alexis Lopato (2019); and second husband John Richard Wilson (2023), a distinguished academic and long-time professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Alberta.
She is survived by her daughter-in-law Catherine Lopato and grandson Adrien Lopato of Ségny, France; step-children Antonia (Toni) Bluher (Gregory) of Ellicott City, Maryland, and David (Michele) Wilson of Atlanta, Georgia; step-grandchildren Katherine, Jacob and Elizabeth Wilson, and Andrew, Julia and Sarah Bluher; and step-great-grandchildren Ashwin Vengurlekar, Casey and Julian Beach, and Matthew and Evangeline Baldea.
In order to escape the Russian Revolution, Natasha’s parents went to the city of Harbin in China, the end of the Chinese-Russian Railway, an established city located in Eastern China. She received her education in Russian and learned other languages including French, English and German; and, during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War, she had to learn Japanese. She married W. I. Lopato, whose family owned an important cigarette factory and gave birth to their only son, Michel, in 1947.
With the coming to power of Mao-tse Tung, foreigners were expelled, and Natasha and her family moved to Europe in 1950 where they lived in France and, later, Italy. There she established a successful career as a teacher of Russian and interpreter not only in Italy but also France and Austria.
Her life changed in 1965 when she received an invitation to teach a summer seminar from Indiana University in Bloomington, USA where Russian speakers were much in demand. Her name appears on a plaque that pays tribute to the teachers who helped to establish the University’s reputation for excellence in Russian language and culture studies. At Indiana she obtained an MA in Russian Literature and Linguistics, and also finished all requirements for a PhD. She supported herself by serving as a teaching assistant and later as a lecturer in both winter and summer sessions. Natasha also had the opportunity to become an American citizen. Her husband stayed in Europe and they subsequently divorced. Son Michel worked for the United Nations in Geneva until his early death in January 2000.
In March 1968, Natasha married John Richard Wilson and, in 1971, they moved to Edmonton where John became a professor in the Department of Classics. Natasha transferred her doctoral credits, completed her dissertation and obtained a PhD from the University of Alberta in April 1981. For 37 years, she taught year-round in various capacities at the University of Alberta, Indiana University and other academic institutions in the US as well as doing occasional seminars in Austria.
Natasha was proud of her long and happy marriage with John (he died just before their 55th wedding anniversary) and they shared many interests including a passionate love for the mountains where they camped and hiked, not only as a couple but also when his children and her son and his family visited. She credited their longevity to their active life style, intellectual interests and travel.
Natasha was passionate about her Russian heritage but her situation as a “stateless” person troubled her and she was grateful, first to the US and, then, to Canada, for giving her citizenship. Natasha arranged for her archives of photographs, documents and writings to be gifted to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Anatol Shmelev, PhD, Robert Conquest Curator for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, welcomed the proposed donation. She annotated the materials, and also wrote accounts of her family’s history.
Natasha had a voracious appetite for life and learning and, after she finished teaching in 1999, wrote some articles for various international Russian/Harbin expat newsletters and, most recently, for the Homeland magazine, published in Russia. She learned to paint with watercolours many of which she gifted to family and friends.
She was renowned among academic staff, former students and friends for her hospitality and excellent Russian food that she prepared. The culmination of this life-long hospitality was the 100th birthday dinner that she hosted on October 10th, 2023 in her historic home in Garneau. On October 26, she moved to an apartment at Rosedale on the Park where she quickly made many friends and even arranged a concert for the enjoyment of residents and staff.
Family and friends would like to thank the staff of the University of Alberta Hospital and of the Hospice at the Edmonton General Hospital for their kind and compassionate care during her prolonged illness.
A Funeral Service will be held Saturday, March 22, 2025, at 11 a.m. at St. Barbara’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral, 10105 – 96 Street, Edmonton. To view a livestream of the service, please visit www.parkmemorial.com and select “Webcasting” from Natasha’s Book of Memories.
Donations in her memory can be made to the University Hospital Foundation or the Edmonton General Hospital in c/o the Covenant Foundation.
University Hospital Foundation
Covenant Foundation
1923 2025
Death notice for the town of: Edmonton, Province: Alberta
death notice Natalya Natasha
Wilson née Kanabeieva 1923 2025
obituaries notice Natalya Natasha
Wilson née Kanabeieva 1923 2025
We offer our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Natalya Natasha
Wilson née Kanabeieva 1923 2025 and hope that their memory may be a source of comfort during this difficult time. Your thoughts and kind words are greatly appreciated.
