Yuliya Maslennikova

On Wednesday, September 5, 2012, YULIA B. MASLENNIKOVA passed away peacefully in Arlington, VA from complications related to treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She took her last breaths as her beloved husband Andrew P. Meyer and sister Olga Maslennikova held her hands and exchanged pleasant anecdotes about Yulia. Her mother and cherished friend Tatiana Maslennikova was also close by.

Yulia spent the first 25 years of her life on the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine. Her native language was Russian, but she also knew Ukrainian and English fluently. For six years, Yulia studied veterinary medicine at the Crimean Agrotechnological University, and in the fall of 2008 she graduated with a Specialist of Veterinary Medicine degree, the Ukrainian equivalent of a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine. On August 18, 2007, Yulia met her future husband, a Peace Corps volunteer living and working in Ukraine, in her hometown of Nizhnegorsk. She approached him in an effort to improve her English.

In the summer of 2009, Yulia moved to the United States to participate in an internship program for foreign veterinary graduates. For a year she lived in Greenville, IN and supervised a large herd of goats. In 2010, Yulia completed her internship and moved to the Washington, DC area to be with her husband, whom she married on March 5, 2010. Yulia excelled as a Veterinary Assistant at VCA Southpaws Veterinary Specialists and Emergency Center in Fairfax, VA. There she was valued not only for her extensive knowledge of veterinary medicine, but for her compassion and bright personality as well.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to either the Washington Animal Rescue League (www.warl.org) or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (www.lls.org).