Frida Zimanene and her daughter Olga

This is me with my daughter Olga. The picture was taken by my husband in Vilnius in the 1950s, when we were strolling along the street on the weekend.

My husband Genrich worked at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania. We lived together without getting married. In 1945 I gave birth to a son and named him Alexander. In a year, when our baby started walking, Genrich and I registered our marriage. We didn’t have a wedding party. It would have looked ridiculous since we had lived together for such a long time.

In 1948 I gave birth to a daughter. I named her Olga after my mother-in-law.When our children were small, there was a nanny. The whole support staff was provided by the general service department of the Central Committee. Then the children went to a very good elite kindergarten, which was open only to the children of party activists. The house-keeper took them to and from the kindergarten.

My daughter Olga graduated from the Medical Institute, Pediatrics Department. She has been deputy chief doctor at the Children’s Republican Hospital for 26 years. Olga married a Lithuanian, Vitas Brazauskas. Olga kept her maiden name. Her husband was a chief doctor of the Republican Sanitary Station. Last year Vitas suddenly died of a heart attack. It was a great loss for my daughter, and her children. I am also missing my son-in-law. He was a wonderful man.