Hana Gasic's grandmother Klara Kohen

My Nona Klara is pictured here sometime before her death in 1926. (Nona is Ladino for grandmother.) Here she is pictured in her house near her kanabe, which is Turkish for a type of arm chair. I do not know much about her because she died when my mother Flora was just 13 years old. In this picture she is wearing the traditional hat worn by Sephardic women, the tuka. They say that before the war, tukas were a normal part of dress for Jewish women in Sarajevo. After the war, I never saw a tuka. It is interesting to note that my Nona, though frail and sick, is dressed very decently. This might not be the garb of a wealthy woman but she did have class. Her dress seems distinctly 'urban' considering the millieu.