Stela Astrukova with her grandchildren

Me and my grandchildren.

I am holding Yosif, who is Evgeni’s son and Ines – Emil’s daughter.

Behind me are Yosif, who is Emil’s son and Linda, who is Evgeni’s daughter. The photo was taken in the living room at home in 1980.

My husband was somewhat insistent that our sons should marry Jewish women.

He believed that Jewish girls had different moral qualities than the others, they were more conservative towards life and values and had a better upbringing.

Both of my sons are married to Jewish women. I think they met their wives in a Jewish choir in which they sang for some time.

Evgeni's wife is Neli Samuilova. They have two children – Linda and Yosif.

Yosif is married to a Bulgarian – Mariana and they have a daughter Sara – my great-granddaughter.

Emil is married to Medi Levi, they have two children – Ines and Yosif.

Evgeni and Emil have medical degrees. They applied for positions in the ISUL Hospital [acronym for 'Institute for Specialization and Development of Medics'] and became assistants in the surgery.

When ISUL was closed, one of them went to work in chest surgery and the other in 2nd surgery.

We are a family of medics. There are 27 – 28 medics in the family tree of my family.