Zoya Shapochnik with her family

This is our family. My paternal grandmother’s brother Sapsai Hazin arranged a family reunion shortly before he died. The first, bottom row: my nephews, children. In the second row sitting from left to right: my father, Joseph Shapochnik, my mother Pesya is next to him, the 3rd to the left is Sapsai Hazin, his sister Enna Goldenstein is next to him, her husband Goldenstein, I don’t remember his first name, the wife of my father's brother David, Dora, David Shapochnik. The first to the left in the 3rd row is me, then Enna's daughter Haya Goldenstein, and Enna's sons. Haya's husband is in the center of the top row and to his left are Enna's sons Grigoriy and Anatoliy. I don’t remember the names of the rest. The picture was taken in Kishinev in 1954.

I knew my grandmother's siblings: Jacob, Sapsai and Enna. Enna, who was much younger than Grandmother Dvoira, lived in the small town Cahul, not far from Leovo, with her husband and children. Her husband was rather well-off. They had a churn and mill. In 1940 when the Soviets came to power, their property was nationalized and Enna, her husband and children were exiled to Siberia, Akmolilnsk oblast. When the war was over, they came back to Moldova. Enna died in the early 1960s. Her sons: Anatoliy, a construction engineer, and Grigoriy, a turner, and daughter Haya lived in America with their families. My grandmother's brothers, Jacob and Sapsai, came back to Moldova with their wives and children, during the Great Patriotic War. I don't remember their names. I saw them only once in the early 1950s at a family reunion at Sapsai's place. I keep a big family picture. Sapsai, who was much older than my grandmother, died in the 1950s. Jacob passed away shortly after him.