Ella and Jakub Abraham with Lydia Piovarcsyova

This is a picture of me and my maternal grandparents, Ella Abrahamova, nee Aguilar and Jakub Abraham in Banovce nad Bebravou in the garden of their house. The photo was taken on 28 July 1934. I was one year and two months old. I often stayed with my grandparents in Banovce nad Bebravou during holidays. My grandfather Jakub was a watchmaker. He was born in Tarnov, then Austria-Hungary, in 1876, came to Slovakia as a businessman and settled in Zabokreky nad Nitrou. He fell in love with my grandmother Ella, they got married and lived in Banovce nad Bebravou on the village's beautiful square. He and my grandmother were both very good-looking people. He was a Nordic type, blonde with blue eyes. My grandmother was of Spanish origin. Her family left Spain when the inquisition expelled the Jews; their Spanish name was Aguilar. She had a typical Spanish appearance, black hair, big dark eyes and pale skin. In a picture of her, taken when she was fifty, she looked like Jose Careras. I think they must have had the same ancestors; in the family there were many singers, even opera singers. Many intellectuals, university professors, in Vienna and other places, were from that family. When my grandmother got married they lived in Banovce. From Banovce they moved to Kezmarok in 1942 to live near their daughter Irenka. They learned that their son was again wanted by the police and the police wanted to arrest them as hostages. So they left for Kezmarok to avoid this. Later my grandmother went to Budapest with Irenka. My grandfather Jakub died during an operation in 1948; the doctors didn't know that he had high blood pressure. He is buried in the Orthodox cemetery in Kosice.