This is my cousin Aron Pekker, Aunt Shulka's son. The photo was taken on the occasion of the purchase of a new coat in Malin in 1939.
Shulka was a beauty: a tall and stately fair-haired girl, and her fiancé, Itzyk Pekker, was also a handsome man. Itzyk came from the town of Chepovitsy near Korosten. He met Shulka at a Jewish wedding. Itzyk was a wealthy man – he was a tradesman.
However, they had to wait for seven years before they could get married. Itzyk’s mother’s name was Shulka, too, and Jewish law didn’t allow a daughter-in-law and mother-in-law to have the same name. Itzyk and Shulka got married in 1916, after Itzyk’s mother died, and my mother’s sister moved to his house in Chepovitsy.
They had two sons – Ionele, born in 1917, and Aron, born in 1918. My mother, who was single at that time, moved to her sister to help her take care of the children and the house.
Aron went to the army during the Great Patriotic War. He was severely wounded and when he was in hospital a medical nurse fell in love with him. She was trying every medication to bring him to recovery. But neither medications nor her care helped Aron. He died in 1943. After the war this medical nurse found us in Malin and told us the story of the last days of his life.
