Edith Umova

This is me in this photo. I was photographed on my birthday. I had turned 18 years old. This photo was taken in Tallinn in 1955.

I studied well at school before falling ill. When I went to the fourth grade for the second time, my performance at school grew worse. When in the seventh grade, I failed my exam in geography. I passed it in the fall, and my mother decided that I had to take a year off to rest. She sent me to my aunt Juganna in Viljandi. My mother worked from morning till night and couldn't dedicate much time to me, while my health condition required care. I stayed one year with my aunt. Then I returned to Tallinn and went to the eighth grade in a different school. I grew stronger at my aunt's and did much better at my new school. I finished the eighth and ninth grades with good marks, but then I started feeling ill more often again. I realized I could not go to college due to my condition. I was thinking of taking a course and specializing in something after finishing school.

After finishing school I completed a course for an accounts clerk. My specialty was operator of computing and keyboard devices. I liked this vocation. There were huge computing machines that seemed like miraculous equipments to us then. It didn't take much effort for me to get trained. I had learned playing the piano, and my fingers were well-skilled.

After working for six years my condition started getting worse, and my doctor said I had to get another job. I went to the DOSAAF [Voluntary Society of Assistance to the Army, the Air Force and the Navy], a paramilitary society of the Soviet Union. I worked as an inspector at the amateur drivers' course. I was responsible for the document control and issuance of drivers' licenses. I liked this job and worked there till 1991, when the USSR broke up.