Nusia Gonopolskiy and Hanna Spirt with a friend

This is my father Nusia Gonopolskiy (first from left), his sister Hanna Spirt, nee Gonopolskaya (in the center), and their friend. The photo was taken in Petroverovka, Kherson province, in 1920. My father was born in Petroverovka in 1901. He received elementary education. My father was a tall man with broad shoulders, regular features and thick black hair. My mother's and my father's parents were neighbors and my parents knew each other since they were children. They had a traditional Jewish wedding in the late 1920s. The newly-weds moved to Odessa. They managed to find accommodation in the vicinity of Privoz market. My father went to work at the buttery. He was an operator of the pressing unit that pressed oil from sunflower seeds. My father was a hardworking employee and was respected by his management. My father's older sister Hanna was born in 1899. She got married in Petroverovka. Her husband's name was Joseph Spirt; he was a Jew. He was also from Petroverovka. I don't know what he did for a living. They moved to Odessa and lived in a big 25 square meter room in a communal apartment in Tiraspolskaya Street in the center of town. Hanna worked at the shoe factory as a worker. Her son Ilia was born in 1926. During the war Hanna and her son were in evacuation in Kustanai with us. In 1943 Ilia was recruited to the army, finished an aviation school of gunners/radio operators and was at the front. Aunt Hanna's husband perished at the front during the Great Patriotic War. Hanna returned to Odessa from evacuation in 1944 and worked at the same factory. Aunt Hanna was a really wise woman and relatives used to ask her for advice. She was beautiful and had a fine figure. My mother and she were good friends. We visited her often.