Anna Ulik’s grandmother, Esther Iosifovna Papish.

My grandmother, Esther Iosifovna Papish, wearing a ballet dress she made herself, at a graduation ball at her secondary school. She won a gold medal for this dress. The photo was made in 1890 in Pinsk.

Grandmother's family came from West Europe. They came to Ukraine when the Jews were moved to Volyn. They came to Zhitomir area. That's where my parents - mother and father - met each other. My mother's parents certainly came from a more well-to-do family with a higher cultural level, with the knowledge of languages, with great love to music. They had special musical evenings at home. When guests came over, they always played music together.

Grandmother died in 1940, right before the war.