Clara Shalenko’s mother Zisl Finegold
This is my mother Zisl Finegold. The photo was made in Odessa in 1921.
My mother was born in Odessa in 1905. My mother didn't tell me much about her childhood. I only know that she lived in the family of her father's sister Perl's since she turned 12. She worked as a housemaid cleaning the apartment and doing the washing and laundry. I don't know where her sisters and brothers were at that time, but my mother told me that she was supporting them as much as she could. During the period of famine 1922 she gave them food leftovers. She had to do it in secret since Perl's husband was greedy and had no intention to help his wife's relatives. I don't know where my mother studied, but she could read and write in Russian and Yiddish. At 18 she went to work as a nurse at the town mental hospital in Slobodka in 1923. My mother was a pretty girl - she had thick beautiful hair.
