Basya Chaika's mother Rachel Gorenstein with her friend Manya

My mother, Rachel Gorenstein, with her friend Manya. Gymnasium student. My mother is wearing a male gymnasium costume. The photo was made in 1916 in Kiev. My mother had been born intoa very rich family of bankers, but the revolution changed all that. Instead of her fine mansion, we lived in a communal flat. There were 7 rooms and a family of at least four people in each room. My mother knew many stories about her wealthy family and how religious her father was, but she kept it a secret from me until I was older. When my father's parents visited, she did keep separate dishes for them and a tallit and tefelin for my father's father. My father also brought real matzo to us on Passover from my grandfather, and it was a big secret. We could not share it with our neighbors, because it was against the law, but my mother's recipe of noodles was used by our whole international house. I remember that my mother, being young, told me how in the 1920?s, a famous Kiev rabbi invited her to join his family in their emigration to America. And she, a daughter of rich parents, from whom Revolution confiscated everything they had, nevertheless decided to stay in her motherland - and she never regretted it.