Last Years
In Saint-Briac, during the summer, Kirill played golf and he and Victoria joined in picnics and excursions. They were part of the social life of the community, going out to play bridge and organizing theatricals. During the winter Victoria and her husband enjoyed visiting nearby Dinard and invited friends home for parties and games. However, it was rumored in town that Kirill went to Paris "for the occasional fling". Victoria, who had devoted her life to Kirill, was devastated when she discovered in 1933 that her husband had been unfaithful to her, according to her sister Marie of Romania's letters. She kept up a façade for the sake of her children, including her teenage son Vladimir, but was unable to forgive Kirill's betrayal. Victoria suffered a stroke soon after attending the christening of her fifth grandchild, Mechtilde, in February 1936. Family and friends arrived, but nothing could be done. When her closest sister, Marie of Romania, reached her bedside, Victoria was asked if she was glad Marie had come. Victoria haltingly said, "It makes all the difference." However, she "shuddered away from Kirill's touch," wrote Marie of Romania. She died on 1 March 1936. Her sister Marie of Romania eulogized her sister in a letter after her death: "The whole thing was tragic beyond imagination, a tragic end to a tragic life. She carried tragedy within her – she had tragic eyes – always – even as a little girl – but we loved her enormously, there was something mighty about her – she was our Conscience."
Victoria was buried in the family mausoleum at Rosenau in Coburg, Germany, until her remains were transferred to the Grand Ducal Mausoleum of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St.Petersburg on 7 March 1995. Her husband was intensely lonely after her death. The marriage of their daughter, Kira, to Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, in 1938 was a bright spot for Kirill, who saw it as the joining of two dynasties. However, Kirill died just two years after his wife. Kirill, though he had been unfaithful, still loved and missed the wife he had depended so much upon and passed his remaining years writing memoirs of their life together. "There are few who in one person combine all that is best in soul, mind, and body," he wrote. "She had it all, and more. Few there are who are fortunate in having such a woman as the partner of their lives -- I was one of those privileged."
Read more about this topic: Princess Victoria Melita Of Saxe-Coburg And Gotha
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