Anastasia Lakhtikova
Moved to Shaker
2012
40 SPRING 2020 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
I came to the Cleveland area when my husband
got a job here. We picked Shaker Heights for our home
because we believe in the equity of education and wanted
our children to grow up in a diverse community. Shaker is
also much more beautiful than other parts of Cleveland with
its interesting architecture and tree-lined sidewalks. We believe that
services are better in places where people pay more taxes, and it
showed here.
When we first moved in, I was surprised that four immediate
neighbor families came to introduce themselves. And they didn’t
just run in and out! One family fed my husband matzo ball soup in
their house when he was unloading the truck. The other families also
brought some treats and stayed a while to talk and orient us in the
neighborhood. It was the first place out of four other places where
we lived as a family where people paid so much attention to us and
offered all kinds of support. It was really sweet. I felt like I finally found
a place where I belonged.
As I was raking my leaves in the front yard during our first fall
here, many neighbors who were passing by or who were walking their
dogs stopped by to introduce themselves. I was pleasantly surprised.
From these introductions I discovered how truly diverse and friendly
Westchester Road in the Mercer neighborhood is.
Not long after we moved in, a Finnish neighbor who was friends
with Polish and second-generation Serbian neighbors on our block
decided to host a coffee party for us. Subsequently, we rotated hosting
and met maybe once a month or two. A German neighbor joined us,
then a Catalan neighbor – all on the same block! We also invited an
American neighbor from our block whose children went to the same
schools as ours.
Our coffee group is a unique gathering. All other groups I’ve ever
attended had some kind of an agenda. Even a Russian playgroup had
an agenda – people came because they wanted their children to speak
Russian with their peers. In our coffee group we have no agenda; we
meet not because we have to but because we want to.
We feel that even though we came here from all over the world
(our American member is from rural Kentucky), we are now of the
same place, sharing the same values, and raising children to be worthy
American citizens. We share political views, passion for travel, and
passion for food prepared carefully and authentically. We are also
terrible coffee addicts, and all of us have domestic animals, gardens,
and lots and lots of house plants. We support each other in our
struggles with professional and personal development, guidance of our
children through schools and life, taking care of elderly parents, and
mourning the passing of pets.
When we first
moved in…One
family fed my husband
matzo ball soup in
their house when
he was unloading
the truck.
Ukraine
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