Rebeca and Noe Gatlan on their wedding day

This is a photo taken on 6th January 1929, on the day my parents, Rebeca and Noe Gatlan, got married. It wasn’t an arranged marrieage, as it used to be in those days.

Here's the story of how my parents met. They didn't meet in Iasi, but in Barlad. My mother had breast eczema. My father was studying medicine - after the 2nd or 3rd year, they were already calling him 'Doctor' - and had the right specialization. Their parents already knew one another, because Barlad was even smaller than it is today, so his parents said, 'Look, our boy, Nae - this is how they called him - is going to come to your place and examine the girl.' In the end, my grandmother took my mother to my father's for the examination, and this is how my parents met. My father treated her and cured her.

Of course, during the repeated house calls and the treatment, the two youngsters came to like each other; and, because their parents already knew one another, they decided to get married. It was a love marriage and they loved each other very much. She married young, when my father was in the senior year at the medical school. She was almost 18 when they got married, on 6th January 1929, on Epiphany.

My parents got married in Barlad. They didn't tell me about their wedding, but I'm sure it was performed in observance of the Jewish tradition: under the canopy, the man breaks a glass and says 'Mazel tov,' that is, 'Good luck.' 'Mazel tov' is also something people say to a woman who is expecting a child. Afterwards, my parents moved to Braila.