Dina Kuremaa and her family

This is our family. From left to right: Charvy my sister Rocha's son, Rocha, I, my daughter Ruth Pegel, nee Kuremaa. The 2nd row: my sister Zelda, my other sister Miriam's husband Naum Shpolyanskiy, and Miriam. The picture was taken in Tallinn in 1971. I got married in 1956. In 1956 Raymond invited me to spend a vacation with him and go to his parents. There was a group of young people with him, so I didn't mind going. We came to the farmstead. There was a very beautiful forest nearby. We took a walk in the forest. In the evening we made a fire. That evening Raymond proposed to me. I took it as a joke and said that I agreed. When we came back home, Raymond reminded me of taking our applications to the marriage register. My mother wasn't against our wedding. During the Soviet regime, she changed her outlook, and didn't take the marriage with a non-Jew as tolerantly as it was in prewar times. On 19th August 1956 we submitted our applications in the marriage register and on 8th September we got our marriage registered. We had a very modest wedding party, only for the closest relatives. Raymond was a very good husband. I have never heard a bad word spoken by him. He respected my observance of the Jewish traditions. On Jewish holidays we always came to my mother for celebration. Our daughter Ruth was born in 1958. Miriam was the first out of my sisters who got married. Her wedding was in August 1945. She married a Jew, Naum Shpolyanskiy, who came to Tallinn from Ukraine. Eldest sister Zelda married a Lett and moved to his place in Riga. Her married name was Putte. Rocha did not change her maiden name and remained Naimark. Rocha had a diploma of a nurse. She worked for a hospital and entered the evening Pharmaceutical Department of Tallinn University. Rocha was the only one in the family, who got higher education. Upon graduation she went to work as a pharmacist, then she was the head of the pharmacy.