This is a picture of me, my mother, Erzsebet Antal, nee Rasko, and my grandmother, Julia Rasko, nee Altmann. The photo was taken in Budapest in 1933.
Grandmother Julia was from Transylvania. When they came to Budapest, I don't know. My mum was born in Kezdivasarhely, but if I'm correct, her sisters were not. I think they came to Budapest around World War I, or even before. My grandmother's father was Christian. Her mother, when she became a widow, already had a big daughter, and together with this Jewish girl, this Jewish woman got married to a very decent Christian farm manager. Because her mother was Jewish, my grandmother was Jewish, too. My grandmother believed in God and prayed. I remember a prayer book, in which she'd put a lock of my hair, as the first grandchild. But my grandparents couldn't have been very observant. Grandmother didn't work, she gave birth to five children, and brought them up. She was a wonderful grandmother, a real brood-hen; she was always talking about the five children, about how hard it was with that many girls. My mother and her brother were always fighting. There were big pillow fights and they played hide-and-seek in the dark. My mother also told me about it when I was sick and I really envied all those children; how good it must have been. Grandmother lived with her daughter Margit most of the time. She always came over to us, and looked after me and my younger brother. She was 81 or 82 years old, when she died, in or around 1958.
Maria Feheri with her mother and grandmother
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