American Director of Ocean Rowing Society Tom Lynch is engaged to Svetlana Kanonchyk of Odessa Ukraine
June 2000.

Dear Friends and Family:
     Below are some photos of my darling Sveta from Odessa, Ukraine (formerly part of the Soviet Union). We met Monday, June 26 2000 at 2:30PM and I proposed Thursday June, 29. I bought her an engagement ring that Friday. We spent three of our last four nights together; and I love her dearly. She has become the wind in my sails, the apple of my eye, and we hope to have a family together. Now begins the "fiancé visa" process that will take 2-4 months. Sveta will then arrive in California where we have three months to marry. I hope to post news on this website as things progress. To all of you, my tribe, I thank you for your prayers and good wishes sent our way.

Much Love from Sveta and Tom  

p.s. If you have sound on your computer the webpage here has a midi file playing "Pretty Woman".

Svetlana (Light-Sunshine)

p.p.s. Sveta is 36 (born April 22, 1964), originally from Latvia on the Baltic Sea (basically Scandinavian German/Swede). She has lived in Odessa with her sixty year old Mother Laima (Latvian for happiness) for the last twenty years in a two room flat on the eighth floor of a housing block. Her father lives in Kiev (parents are divorced), and is retired military. Sveta moved a lot as a child; born in Kazakhstan, seven years in Latvia (her grandma still lives there, 84 years old), on to Moscow, Lvov (formerly part of Poland) and Kiev. Lost a lot of family during World War II (24 million died during the War from Eastern Europe).  She has worked for the Russian Drama Theatre in Odessa for eighteen years helping manage a coterie of 60-100 actors and actresses. She has been on tour with the company to many locations including Paris and Prague.  She has never driven a car and does speak some English (she is presently starting intensive English classes and a driving class). She is Catholic (my mom will approve of this ;0). She loves cats (...important, I asked Sveta, "...do you like "meow, meow" and she smiled and said they have two ;0). She has beautiful blue eyes, blonde hair, is about 5'4" tall, has a wonderful laugh and a true heart.  And most important she loves me for me; all of me (as we all know there is a lot of me to love).

Svetlana Kanonchik
Dear friends Kenneth and Tatiana Crutchlow (...Tatiana has known Sveta for fifteen years), Sveta, me and Irina (Tatiana's sister)	(click for larger image)
First Rose--Tuesday June 27 at the Opera House	(click for larger image)
Stairs at the Opera House	(click for larger image)
On the Main Boulevard (Deribasovskaya) in Odessa	(click for larger image)