Born August 16, 1921 in Gallipoli, Turkey, Eugenia was the daughter of Constantin Nikolaevich and Tatiana Petrovna, two Russian refugees trekking across Europe to flee the Bolshevik Revolution. The family was joined by Eugenia’s brother Nicholas Constantinovich in 1923, and by 1926, they settled in the small village of Maubourguet, outside Tarbes, France, in the Hautes Pyrenées.
During the Nazi occupation, she studied literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, where she was an active member of the Russian “première immigration.” In 1949, she married Siméon Siméonides, also a Russian emigré of Greek heritage, with whom she raised three sons: her stepson Jean; Pierre, born 1949, and André, born 1955. The pair divorced in 1959.
In 1960, she married Oleg Borisovich Pomerantzeff, and moved with Pierre and André to Brookline, Massachusetts, where she took on the role of stepmother to Oleg’s four children, Marina, Irina, Andrei, and Anne, and taught French in the Needham Public Schools. She lived in her home for the remainder of her life.
To anyone and everyone who knew her, Eugenia was larger than life. Possessed of a strong love for people, God, animals and beauty, she felt deeply and lived richly. A member of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Boston, Mass., she was a devoted Christian, and over the years, opened up her home to countless people for a cup of tea, a glass of wine, or a place to lay their head. She was vivacious and fun-loving, surrounding herself with friends and never passing up the opportunity to go on an adventure. She was vital and strong. She drove a car and rode a bicycle until she was 93, when a tumble forced her to trade in her keys for... a kick scooter.
Eugenia leaves her son Pierre and his wife Françoise, of Montastruc-Savès, France; her daughter-in-law Julia of Boston, Mass.; her stepdaughters Marina of Highland Lakes, NJ, Irisha of Ashville, N.C. and Anne of Marshfield, Mass.; and her stepsons Jean of Toronto, Canada and Andrei of New York. She leaves her grandchildren Natasha of Sparta, NJ, Peter of Princeton, NJ, Alexandra of Brookline, MA, Tamara, of Beverly, MA, and Andrei of Ft. Meyers, FL; and great-grandchildren: Jesse, Saskia, Lorenzo, Sofia and Deklan; as well as countless members of the von Rosenschild Paulyn clan for whom she was the inspiring matriarch. She is preceded by her parents, her brother Nicholas, her husband Oleg, and her son André.
A funeral will be held on Tuesday, October 6, at 11am in the Mount Wadsworth Cemetery, Concord Road, Sudbury, MA.
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