British engineer was ready to break the Soviet border to love his Russian wife

England received the Grovers as heroes, journalists crowded their house to have an interview. But Brian's prudish family did not welcome the Russian daughter-in-law as they believed she spoiled the well organized quiet life of Grover. The engineer could not find proper job, as British employers did not want to have an employee who could do reckless things such as an illegal flight to the Soviet Union. Brian and Yelena had to move to a place where nobody knew their story and asked no questions.

They settled in Africa where Grover built a house for the family, they became farmers; soon Yelena gave birth to two sons.

In 1956, the Soviet magazine Novy Mir published the story by Sheinin and journalists again revealed keen interest in the story of Grover. Hollywood producers even asked to sell the copyright of the love story to shoot a film in Moscow, London and Grozny. Brian treated such offers as another adventure, but Yelena would not like to have her love story showed in a film and would not reveal her real life to some filmmakers. Her nieces say Yelena refused because her real life seriously differed from the story told by the Soviet detective writer. She requested her relatives staying in Soviet Leningrad not to give interviews for free. 

Yelena did not speak English even after the fifty years of living in the English-speaking country. Brian helped her communicate with other people when it was necessary. At home they always spoke Russian.

Yelena died at the age of 94 in three months after she broke her femoral neck.  Brian Grover died in a year.

Moskovsky Komsomolets