Esther Ostrovskaya with her children Sophia Lifshitz and Gennadiy Ostrovski

This is my older sister Esther Ostrovskaya, nee Redko, photographed at my father's request with her twins, Sophia Lifshitz, nee Ostrovskaya, and Gennadiy Ostrovski. Esther and her family lived away from us and my father was eager to have a picture of his only grandchildren. This photo was taken in Kiev in 1953. My sister Esther was born in 1916. She was named after one of our grandmothers. Esther married Yuzia Orlovski, a Jewish guy from Ilintsy, whom we knew well, in 1937. He finished a military school and became a professional military. They didn't have a Jewish wedding, considering the political and economic hardships of the time. They registered their marriage in a registry office, and in the evening there was a wedding dinner with the family in our damp basement in Artyoma Street. My niece Sophia, Esther's daughter, married Boris Lifshitz, a Jewish man. Her only daughter Zhanna was born in 1959. Sophia was a housewife. Her mother, my sister Esther, was severely ill and was bedridden. Sophia tended to her. Her twin brother worked at the pram factory after finishing school. He was married and had a daughter. He fell ill with anemia and died in 1986. His daughter finished the national Polytechnic University. She works as an engineer. In 1979 Zhanna moved to Israel. Her parents stayed in Kiev. Sophia had to take care of Esther. My sister Esther died in 1990, Klara died in 1991. They were buried in the Jewish sector of the Kiev town cemetery of Berkovets, near Esther husband and our father's graves.