Milla Verkhov-Karno

Milla was born in Kiev, Ukraine on July 9, 1940. When she was barely a year old, her father, a journalist, was killed in WWII. Her mother raised her alone. In 1963, MiIa graduated from Kiev State University where she majored in the English language. After graduation, she worked as a translator for the Physics Department at the same university. Milla and her first husband Vladimir Golovan lived in Kiev where they raised her son Anton. In 1993, Milla emigrated to the US and settled in Des Moines. Like any immigrant, in America, Milla had to start from scratch, but she made her new American life a success. She made new friends, got married and lived eight happy years with her second husband Genadly Karno till his untimely death in 2010. Since 1994, Milla worked for Compressor Controls Corporation (CCC) as a Russian and Ukrainian translator. After she retired from CCC, she started working for the Des Moines Jewish Community. There she helped immigrants from the countries of the former Soviet Union to settle in Des Moines, drove them to medical appointments, and helped them with the translation. Milla was very much loved by her colleagues and her Jewish Community clients for her caring, warm nature. She was generous with her time and was ready to help her clients day and night. Milla was a person of many talents and interests. She wrote poetry and memoir prose, enjoyed books, art, and music. But, most important, she had a gift of friendship. She was a popular person in the Russian-speaking community and made many American friends. Milla lived alone, but was rarely alone. She always had somebody for tea in her cozy and immaculately clean house. Even in the last difficult month of her life, she found strength to serve a cup of delicious tea to her guests and never abandoned her great sense of humor. Mila had a green thumb—plants thrived in her caring hands. The flowers in her guest room bloomed year-round. Mila is survived by her son Anton (51) and her granddaughter Alexandra (24) who live in Kiev.