Gherda Kagan’s daughter Natalia Skripunova with her

This is my daughter Natalia Skripunova with her husband Sergey Skripunov and their sons: Alexandr (from the left) and Konstantin. (This photo was made in Odessa in 1986. My daughter Natalia was born in 1958. She went to school in 1965. She had expressed Jewish looks and she suffered a lot from anti-Semitic demonstrations of her classmates at school. As a result, she developed a strongly negative attitude toward her Jewish identity. In 1973 Natalia entered the school of Soviet trade. After finishing it she worked in 'the house of toys'. Her management valued her high, but Natalia was attracted to the theater. She went to work as an usher at the Ukrainian Theater and then became an electrician to have an opportunity to travel with the theater. She met Sergey Skripunov, Russian, at the theater. He came to Odessa from Vorkuta. He studied at the Mechanic Faculty of Theatrical School and worked as a scenery assemblyman in the Ukrainian Theater. They got married in 1980. Many employees of the theater came from Western Ukraine and had strong anti-Semitic moods. They said to Sergey: "Why did you marry a zhydovka [abusive word for a Jewess]?' In 1982 my daughter's son Alexandr was born and in 1985 - her second son Konstantin. At that time only I kept her from divorcing her husband. I thought that if life conditions improved their life would get better. My husband and I literally skinned ourselves alive. We sold everything of value we had to save for the first installment for a three-bedroom cooperative apartment. In 1987 they received this apartment and we helped them to buy furniture hoping that they would make it up. As it turned out, it wasn't about an apartment. My daughter's husband couldn't care less about his family drinking and going loose. They divorced. He demanded that my husband and I should pay him a lot of money if we wanted him to leave the apartment. We did and our daughter and grandchildren could have this apartment. My husband insisted that our older grandson Alexandr went to study in the 'Or Sameyach' school, but he was expelled for bad behavior from there. He didn't find it interesting to study in a Jewish school. In 2002 our daughter Natalia died. She had a weak heart that failed her during a gynecological surgery. My husband and I take care of our grandchildren. Their father doesn't care about them. He has another wife. Alexandr is a 4-year student of Ecological University (Hydrometeorological in the past). His specialty is ecology. Konstantin is a last-year student of a machine tool plant. They come to see me, call me and help me.