Honoring a Big Brother’s Heart and Spirit

Andrei Olenicoff loved being a big brother. He was always attentive, caring, and making sure his little sister, Natalia, was having a good time. “When I was four years old, I would get scared at night, and Andrei would sleep next to me in my little twin bed to calm me down,” Natalia recalls. “He loved to tell me stories and make me laugh. He was the best big brother I could have ever asked for.” Natalia Olenicoff with her brother Andrei, as children Natalia says Andrei didn’t like dwelling on the retinitis pigmentosa (RP) that progressively robbed him of his vision. As he grew up, many of his close friends didn’t know he had the condition. He didn’t even share the fact that he had vision problems with his family. And vision loss didn’t deter him from taking part in the myriad of outdoor sports he so enjoyed, including: skiing, mountain biking, and diving. In fact, later in his life, he married Kim Leone, an attorney and part-time scuba diving instructor. When Andrei was eventually diagnosed with RP in his early 20s, the news was very difficult for his parents, Igor and Jeanne, and his little sister. “We went into attack mode,” says Natalia. “We asked ourselves ‘How can we beat this? ’ ” Andrei saw top retinal specialists and took vitamins, and the family began strongly supporting the Foundation Fighting Blindness to help find a cure for Andrei’s unrelenting condition. Igor even became a Foundation trustee. “We knew that if we didn’t find an answer, there was a good chance Andrei would go blind,” adds Natalia. However, in an instant, things would forever change for the Olenicoff family. In October 2005, Andrei was killed in an automobile accident. He was just 32 years old at the time. The loss was shocking and devastating for the many friends and family that adored Andrei. “It’s not the kind of thing you think is ever going to happen,” says Natalia. “We were very fortunate to have good friends and family who got us through the really dark moments.” As time passed, the loss of Andrei brought the Olenicoffs and their friends together, and they created the Andrei Memorial Foundation as a way to remember him, and do something positive and lasting in his memory. “It’s been an important part of the healing process,” Natalia says. “We wanted to create something that would carry on his spirit. He was so great about helping people and supporting the people around him. He had such a big heart.” Major benefactors of the Andrei Memorial Foundation have been the Foundation Fighting Blindness and other vision-related causes including Guide Dogs for the Blind and Makapo Aquatics, a visually-impaired rowing team. One of their Foundation’s first gifts went to Russian orphans who needed prosthetic devices and corrective surgeries. To increase the reach of the Andrei Memorial Foundation and to further honor her brother’s spirit, Natalia recently opened a restaurant in Irvine, California, called Andrei’s Conscious Cuisine and Cocktails. The restaurant embodies the best of Andrei’s traits including his sense of adventure, friendliness, and commitment to the environment, and all profits of the restaurant go to the Andrei Memorial Foundation. Natalia became a board member of the Orange County Chapter of the Foundation Fighting Blindness to actively and personally play a role in finding treatments and cures for the vision-robbing disease that so greatly affected her brother. The Olenicoffs have also been strong supporters of the Orange County VisionWalk and Dining in the Dark. While Natalia and her family move forward in their lives and carry Andrei’s legacy, it’s been difficult for them to get over the tremendous loss. Natalia says, “I know it has been a few years since his passing, but every day and every month, I miss him more and more.”

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