The winter of 1995 was very dry and warm in Uzbekistan. Sasha found a season job in a Rescue Team in the ski resort "Kymbel" - 90 km from Tashkent. But there was no snow in the mountains at that time so he did not go to the resort. Whole hiking-skiing community went for the New Year Eve to Iangii-Abad - another small ski resort near Tashkent.
Sasha did not go because his grandson was visiting Uzbekistan and Sasha wanted to spend some time with him. December 31 1996 Sasha went on bike to see his grandson. His grandson was at village "Botanika" - suburb of Tashkent - a 30 min pleasant bike route from Tashkent. Around 8 PM Sasha headed back home, to Tashkent. His wife Luba was waiting for him, preparing for the New Year Eve. Somewhere at the middle of his trip, in town of "Kibraii" light sedan car "Daewoo" hit him at the full speed. The impact was so strong that the bike fell apart. Sasha was thrown far away from the road. The sound of collision was so loud, that people heard from the house nearby and went out to see what happened.
The car did classic "hit and run" but from the impact the license plate fell off. That's why the car was found. Vladimir Hmurovich who picked up Sasha's body said that lower part of Sasha's body was totally smashed. That was a terrible sight. But you have to know Sasha - he found strength to stand up and ask for water. After that he fell unconscious. He was delivered to a hospital in the town of Chirchik - 50 km from Tashkent. This was because he had the documents of Chirchik Mountains Rescue Team.
About 11 PM December 1996 Sasha died in unconsciousness in the hospital...
A lot of people attended the funeral. I have not seen such big crowd at a funeral ever. He gathered all as together - people with different interests, who lost connection for years,. And at the funeral we found out that Sasha did not lose that connection - he always had time to call, to visit, to organize trip to mountains, to ski... He had a lot of friends, completely different people. He could easy found a shared interes with a person, made a easy friend and keep this friendship for ever.
Almost everyone went to the cemetery (near the borough "TTZ"). Everyone was full of bright memories about Sasha and wanted to share them with everybody. Memories about his character - always full of life, kind, funny, eager for new ... His endless hobbies - ski, rock-climbing, biking, hiking, paraplane, water ski, surf-boat, sailing. And he was always the master at any of them. He was talented at any physical activity. What ever he did - it was always pleasure to see his movements..
He had a gift to write poems, but nobody knew about that.. He liked music a lot, you should see his collection. He had done some paintings. He had so many plans...
Everybody suddenly start feel himself like asylum. We felt like we did not finish our conversation with him, did not spend enough time with him, did not realize last plans to go to the mountains...
I was in this feeling of huge lost, emptiness almost for three month, just now I starting to hear and see things normally...
