Irina Golbreich and her son Alexandr

This is me holding my son Alexandr. He turned four and my husband photographed us. This photo was taken in Riga in 1962.

I got married in 1957. I met my future husband Aron Golbreich through his aunt, who was Mama's friend. In 1958 our only son Alexandr was born. My husband wanted to give him the name of Solomon after his deceased father, and call him Sasha affectionately. I was against it. Giving him the name of Solomon in those years meant condemning him to continuous teasing by Russian and Latvian  children. So, I said that if we were going to call him Sasha then why didn't we give him the name of Alexandr? So we did.

Our family was no different from many other families. My husband and I went to work. Our son went to school. The job of a school teacher takes much time and effort, and we spent less time with our son than we wanted to. Our son took to liking reading. Perhaps, it helped him to compensate for lack of his parents' attention. When my parents retired, they could spend more time with Alexandr, and he liked visiting them. We spent summer vacations at the Riga seacoast. We also liked traveling across the USSR. Sometimes we visited my relatives in Moscow. 

Alexandr was good at mathematic and exact sciences. He had the highest grades in these subjects at school. Our son studied well. He took part in various Olympiads in mathematic and physics, and was awarded prizes. Before finishing school, Alexandr knew where he wanted to continue his education. He entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Riga University. Alexander studied very well. As a student, our son was also involved in scientific activities.