This is the family of my mother Nadezhda Dziekovskaya. This photo was taken in Odessa, in the 1900s. From left to right: my grandfather Yefim El'bert, my mother Nadezhda Dziekovskaya, my grandmother Ethel El'bert, my mother's sister Vera El'bert.
Approximately in the early 1900s, probably for their ties with revolutionaries, my grandmother and grandfather were directed to move to Belaya Tserkov near Kiev, where they were watched by police. They were good doctors and friendly people. They believed that a doctor did not only have to cure his patients, but also, provide assistance to them. They issued recipes for poor patients to get free medications from their pharmacist. My grandmother and grandfather paid for these medications. They also supported their patients materially. My grandfather was chief doctor of the town hospital and had private practice. He often visited countess Branitskaya living in a nearby mansion and often patients from Kiev came to see him. My grandmother was an obstetrician. She told me that when poor villagers called for her help she even took warm women's underwear to them. To teach them to wear warm underwear. My grandmother and grandfather were very decent with their colleagues. In the past doctors provided free medical services to their colleagues. My mother said that once a young man from Kiev visited my grandfather. He consulted my grandfather and left him the fee. Later somebody told my grandfather that he was a medical student. My grandfather went to Kiev, found this student, gave him his money back and even rebuked him.
My grandmother and grandfather had two daughters. My mother's older sister Vera was born in Odessa in 1891. My mother Nadezhda El'bert was born in 1896 in Odessa also.
