The Story of Our Love
HAPPY SINCE 2019
Our Story
Most of you have known us for years. And most likely you have heard the story before. However, here’s the short story of our family for you to probably get to know us even better!
Linda & Maxim
Forever Sealmates
How it started
It all started at Linda’s 25th birthday
Back in June of 2019, Linda and her twin brother, Alan, decided to celebrate their 25th birthday at a Russian banquet hall called Hollywood. To those who joined us back then, you remember how epic of a night that was. Max at the time had a side gig working there every Saturday as a photographer who would live print photos for guests as they posed with their ‘Oscar’ trophy. Long story short, after having to cheers around 50 guests with a shot of vodka each time, Linda locked eyes on Max and performed mating calls similar to what you see in the documentaries about bird kingdoms where the male bird usually woos the female with elaborate dances.
If you have no idea what that means, just check out the photo below.
PRECIOUS MOMENTS TOGETHER
Timeline
From that night onwards, Max and Linda went on countless dates playing archery tag or strolling along harbourfront in Toronto, and being together just became second nature. Within 3 months of dating, Linda moved in to live with Max downtown, meeting the parents happened, and not even a year later, they bought a house together in Aurora. Some may call this relationship fast-paced, but when you realize that you’ve found your true soulmate in this universe, everything just makes sense and happens naturally.
2019
June: Linda's 25th Birthday
Love at the first sight
September: The first Cuba trip together
And the first ever Cuba trip for Maxim. Long walks on the Varadero strip, endless rum, and two happy hearts
October: Moved in together
After yet another trip back to Linda's parents' house after her staying at Maxim's for half a week, he suggested she should stop going back and forth with her carry-on luggage bag. At first she freaked out, but then accepted the offer
2020
March: Survived the lockdown together!
Working from a one bedroom condo was a challenge, but
sealmates 
on the same wavelength have no problem spending 24/7 together
August: Moved into the new home in Aurora
Not even a year after they first saw each other, they bought a house together in Aurora
2021
Alisa, our dog, has joined our family!
A precious little energetic (+ hypoallergenic!) spirit joined our household - a lil' teacup Yorkie named Alisa
Summer: Canada tour
Maxim & Linda took advantage of pandemic travel restrictions and adventured around beautiful Alberta, British Colombia, and Quebec
November 19th: She Said YES!
Maxim surprised Linda on a Cuban beach at night under a full moon... keep reading to hear the full juicy story
The Ultimate Proposal: 11.19.2021
A private note captured by Linda after it happened
Un sueno hecho realidad con mi amor. I am still paralyzed in shock from the fact that the love of my life, Maxim, proposed to me 2 nights ago! He couldn’t have picked a more romantic evening – after dinner and the theatre show, we headed to the beach at night to watch the waves crashing on the shore. Max and I took over a cabana style bed lounger and laid there together just watching the ocean and enjoying the meditative soundtrack of the waves. His dad and girlfriend left shortly after we got to the beach, and we were all alone. We spent more time laying there, reminiscing about all of our memories together, beginning all the way from our first trip to Cuba together. I reminded Max how back then there was one night on that trip where he said he wanted to find true love like his parents had. I’ve aaaaalways remembered that night and those words!
We reflected back on all of the awesome activities we’ve been able to do together, even in this past year alone – from skiing (Max’s first season!!!!), to learning how to downhill mountain bike, to visiting Alberta together and climbing to 2400m elevation to the summit of a gorgeous mountain, to visiting British Columbia and fully sending it down Whistler mountain on downhill bikes, to watching sunrises and sunsets in Tofino, to deciding to become puppy parents (January 2022), to going on this first international trip since the pandemic began, and overall just living every single day to its fullest.
After we chatted and lounged some more, we decided it was time to head back and find Max’s dad and Lena. We got up to leave, but not before admiring the full moon that night with it’s vibrant light and the stars in the sky. It was at that moment that Max, standing (I thought?) beside me called me by my nickname and said “beyza?”, to which I responded in Russian, “da?”….. I turned to look at him when I responded and he repeated “da?” As he got down on one knee, with a beautiful ring in his hand. EVERYTHING WAS SO ROMANTIC! My brain probably couldn’t handle all of those emotions and consequently the first thing that left my mouth was, “are you f****** serious?!?!”, only to repeat it again after still trying to process what was happening.
Poor Max was still on his one knee, waiting for me to say yes and here I was just in shock! It took me, what felt like a few minutes but in reality was seconds, to say “da, da, konesho!” Which means yes yes, of course! And that was that – we put the ring on my Canadian ring finger and kissed and hugged, Max practically holding me up because my legs were shaking a bit! We spent some time there embracing, and afterwards Max said let’s go find his dad to tell him the news. At that point I was still deep in my single core state processing a flurry of emotions, had to sit down on the lounger and recuperate. He called me his fiancée and even that caused another eruption of emotions – happiness, incomprehension, love, bewilderment.
It was only another hour later that we went to go find his dad and Lena, but not before I called my entire fam on FaceTime! My brother and both mom and dad connected, my parents in the kitchen and my brother somewhere else in their house. At first I said nothing and just showed my hand with the ring to the camera, trying to get it to focus. No one noticed at first and my mom was just asking a whole bunch of questions about how we are liking Cuba and how’s the weather (they’re joining us here tonight for a week). Finally after a solid 1 min, my mom’s face was priceless – you could see her sharp changes in facial expressions from confusion to shock to screaming joyously and loudly with her arms flailing everywhere. My dad’s first words, as predicted, were how come Max didn’t ask him for my hand! And Alan was smiling so much the entire time, in fact I’m not sure I ever saw him smile for this long!!! Everyone was so happy for us. We then found Max’s dad and Lena and they congratulated us and we drank a celebratory rum toast, or two! They also gifted us a beautiful silver spoon set, as a gift before marriage, as is custom sometimes in Russia. They were both in on this the whole time of course!
Max later told me that he was carrying the ring in his pocket the whole night, in a small pouch that had a clip on it. If it were me, I would be terrified to lose that beautiful ring!! But Max said he wasn’t stressed at all, and thought that night things could line up well for a proposal, if I were to agree to go to the beach. He was absolutely right. In fact, the night before, we had both seen 1-2 shooting stars. When I saw one, I looked at Max to check if he saw and he immediately knew what I had wished for. Thank you shooting star, my nail lady (who said all the girls that have been getting manicures from her got engaged), and thank you to the love of my freaking life in this universe, Maxim Khasiev, for such a wonderful surprise. I will never forget those precious moments.
