Oro Bidjarano with her daughters

This photo was taken in Paris in 1962 at my aunt Oro Bidjarano's place. From left to right are: my mother's sister Oro Bidjarano, her daughter Beti, me, my aunt's other daughter Rezhina and Beti's husband, Latzi. The little girl in the front is Babet, Beti's daughter. My husband Haim Buko Levi and I were in Paris and we visited my aunt. My aunt Oro was almost senile at that time but when she saw me she looked at me for a long time and finally she smiled - as if she understood who I was. But she didn't say a word. Oro [Ladino: gold] was a very beautiful woman; she fell in love with a young Bulgarian from Kazanlak. At that time this was considered setting a terrible precedent, almost a scandal for the Jewish community and her relatives; they renounced her and they didn't want to see or hear anything of this beautiful woman. Later she married a wealthy Bulgarian in Plovdiv - he had some business in the oil and gas industry. They had two daughters, Beti and Rezhina. Later on they forgave her the mistake and she could come and visit us in Kazanlak - during these visits I was fascinated with her beauty. Afterwards they divorced, her husband left for Egypt with one of their daughters and she left for Paris with the other one in 1935 or 1936. She survived the German occupation in France, her friends and neighbors hid her. After the war she and her daughter set up a little industry of pret-a-porté.