Golda Margolina and Sonia Efest

Golda Margolina and Sonia Efest

This is a picture of my mother, Golda Margolina (nee Efest) , on the right, and her older sister Sonia. Sonia probably came to visit my mother who was living with my grandmother's sister Shyfra in Borispol. The photo was taken in 1908. I didn't know my mother's parents. Her father's name was Juda Efest. As for my grandmother I don't know anything about her. My mother's parents died during an epidemic of Spanish influenza in 1903. I don't know where my mother was born. There were many children in the family. I never met any of my mother's sisters or brothers, but I heard about them. My mother's sister Sonia and her brothers Nisl and Gersh were older than her. My mother also had a younger brother named Leib. This is all I know about them. My mother was born in 1896. After their parents died the children were taken to my grandparents numerous relatives' families living in various towns. My mother was raised in the family of my grandmother's sister Shyfra, who lived in Borispol. I don't know anything about my mother's childhood. I was too small to ask questions and when I grew up there was nobody to ask. My parents lived in the same street in Borispol and knew each other since childhood. They got married in 1917. I don't know whether they had a traditional Jewish wedding. They were both beautiful. My father had a small thoroughly trimmed beard. He didn't have payes. He wore dark suits, light shirts and ties. He wore a hat outside and a yarmulka at home. My mother didn't wear a wig and she didn't wear a shawl either. She had beautiful thick hair that she wore in a knot. She wore common clothes. My parents lived with Grandmother Shyfra and her husband in their house in Borispol. Their children had their own families at that time and left their parents' home. I never met any of them. I can vaguely remember my mother. When I was a bit over three years old she died at childbirth. This happened on 6th April 1924. The baby was stillborn. They were both buried in the Jewish cemetery in Sumy.
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