Ester Josifova's family

This is a photo of my parents taken during a picnic in the village of Varshets in 1924. My father, Buko Pinkas, is the sixth from the right. My mother, Sofi Pinkas, is sitting on his right. My mother and my father met each other on the great Jewish holiday of Purim. My father lived in the village of Kovachevtsi at the time and came to Sofia especially for the holiday. He saw my mother in the carnival - she was dressed as Queen Ester. He fell in love with her at first sight. My father was tall and well built and my mother was very short but very beautiful. He was very impulsive and he introduced himself immediately. I remember my mother telling me about what my father looked like at their first meeting. He was dressed in typical Bulgarian village clothes. He wore poturi, traditional loose trousers worn by villagers, and socks with beads on them. He spoke the local Kovachevtsi dialect fluently and also sang the local folk songs very well. My father eliminated another candidate for my mother's hand. They got married in 1907 in Sofia. They had a religious wedding with a rabbi in the synagogue. All my father's relatives from Kovachevtsi attended the wedding. My parents settled in Sofia after the wedding. They lived in the city center. My brother, my two sisters and me were born in that house. My brother, Moshe, was born in 1908, my older sister, Lika, in 1910, I followed in 1914 and my younger sister, Lili, in 1925. The part of the city has changed a lot since then, and at present the main building of the Central Universal Shop is situated at the place where our house used to be.