Irina Doroshkova’s mother Hava Ozer and grandchildren Andrey Penkin and Sergey Penkin

Irina Doroshkova’s mother Hava Ozer and grandchildren Andrey Penkin and Sergey Penkin

My mother Hava (Eva) Ozer and her great grandchildren - my grandchildren Andrey and Sergey Penkin playing cards photographed by my son in my apartment in Lvov in 1985. After the war my mother taught history at school and continued her lecturing activities. On certain days she lectured at some organizations telling them about international situation and the state policy. She retired in 1968 and after that my mother continued to be a Party activist - she worked with children. There was a club in our neighborhood where children came to play and read. She was retired. Later she began to work at a newsstand where she was selling newspapers earning some additional money. My mother worked for a long time and then, at 72 she grew old abruptly: she lost her hearing and began to have eyesight problems. She was devoted to the Communist Party to her last days. She always listened to latest news - she believed it was her duty to know since she was a member of the Communist Party. She was almost deaf and dumb and we turned on the radio for her to hear it. In 1990s my mother and stepfather decided to move to Israel and submitted their documents. My mother wanted to see Israel. She wished she could live in a kibutz since it was so much like a commune! She watched all programs about Israel (there were no programs about Israel before or if they mentioned this country at all they always did it with negative attitude). My mother always watched new developments with interest and never condemned anyone. Mother died in January 1994, few months before her departure to Israel. She was so eager to leave for the land of our ancestors. She believed that she would get better there. We buried her at the town cemetery in Lvov. My son Vladimir was a success at school and was a smart boy. He finished school in 1969 and we wanted him to go to an Institute. He chose the Polytechnic Institute in Lvov. We were so worried when he was taking his entrance exams. I didn't want him to be in Lvov by himself - he was just a boy. A friend of mine moved to Lvov and I went to visit her. She convinced me to try to move to Lvov. We exchanged our apartment to Lvov. My son and I shared a room and my mother and her husband lived in another room. My son Vladimir married a Russian girl upon graduation from the Institute. I tried to talk him out of it. It wasn't that I didn't like her, but I believed he was too young to get married. Well, he didn't listen to me. She got a baby, but she continued to study at the Institute and he stayed with the baby and at night he made drawings for her. Tania knew that he was half Jew when she met him, but it didn't matter to her. I didn't care about her nationality either. I believe that most important was that they got along with one another. They have two sons. Andrey was born in 1976. He also graduated from the Road Faculty of Polytechnic Institute. He lives in Israel and likes it there a lot. Their younger son Sergey born in 1981 is a student of the Lvov Polytechnic Institute.
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