Lea Beraha

Here you can see me at my work place in the 1960s. I have already won recognition as a doctor, I have a degree and I am already working in the tobacco factory in Sofia. A small house of cigarettes, made especially for me as a gift of thanks by one of the factory workers, can be seen in the background. Others used to give me flowers. People loved and respected me. They loved me because I took good care of them. I left the tobacco factory as a self-confident person. I graduated in medicine and worked for five years in the hospital in Pernik. I became a chief of the professional diseases' sector. I traveled around the mines. In 1964 I came to Sofia with my husband. First I worked in the hospital at the Ministry of the Interior. Then I applied for a job in the 4th city hospital. Out of 35 requests, only mine was accepted. I worked under the hardest system. I was in charge of seven beds in the hospital till 11am, then I was in the polyclinics until 1pm, in the tobacco factory until 2pm and finally I had house-calls. In addition I was working on my specialty degree and meanwhile I had already given birth to a child, my daughter Irina [Santurdjiyan, nee Beraha, born in 1966]. In Pernik and in Sofia we lived in lodgings. In Sofia we first lived in a small room in Lozenets quarter. Later we moved to our current apartment.