This is my father Bucco Kohen shortly after his wedding day. The photo was taken most probably in 1919 in Nova Zagora.
My paternal grandmother and grandfather, Luna Kohen and Yuda Kohen, were grocers in Plovdiv. My maternal grandfather, Aron Mori, was engaged in production of confectionery in Nova Zagora. I have heard my father bantering with my mother, Klara Kohen, that her family promised to give him a wagon of sugar in dowry, but he never caught a glimpse of that wagon. Of course, there was no such wagon at all. It was just that my father had a very good sense of humor.
My father told me that in the mornings, before he went to school, he used to put a tray full of snacks on his head, which had been prepared by my grandfather. He would go to the market to sell them, and it wasn't before it that he would go to school. Thus he helped his family, which wasn't small at all. They were four brothers and one sister. My father was born in 1888, most probably in Samokov. He grew up in Plovdiv, where he studied at the Alliance Israelite Universelle up to the seventh grade. He studied accountancy on his own and started working as a white-collar worker with various companies. His work required him to move to Nova Zagora, where he met my mother and married her in 1915.
My mother was born in 1889. I can't say where my mother was born for sure. Maybe she was born in Nova Zagora, where she lived with her parents and where she met my father, but it's also possible that she was born in Adrianople, where her parents had moved from.
