Ronia Finkelshtein's mother Adel Finkelshtein

My mother Adel Finkelshtein in the mourning. The photo was taken shortly after her daughter Luda's death. My mother was born in 1890. She and her sisters studied in grammar school for a few years. After that she didn't work or study. She was helping my grandmother about the house. My grandparents were very religious and my mother, being their older daughter, did her best to please them. My mother went to the market to buy a chicken and took it to the shochet to have it slaughtered, and she bought all kosher food for them. I don't know how my parents got acquainted. Aunt Nyura told me that my father was engaged when he met my mother, but when he saw her, he fell in love with her at first sight. He left his fiancée and married my mother. My mother's parents were religious, so my parents had a traditional Jewish wedding. My grandmother told me that there was a chuppah installed in the yard of their house: a velvet canopy on four posts. My mother wore a fancy wedding gown and a white veil covering her head and face. My father wore a new suit. The rabbi said a prayer, gave his blessing and pronounced the marriage contract. My mother's relatives, neighbors and my father's friends came to the wedding. There were tables laid in the yard and klezmer musicians playing at the wedding party. My father rented a room on the first floor in the center of Poltava. My mother became a housewife. My sister, Luda, was born in 1914. The girl was very pretty, blonde and had blue eyes, but there was something wrong with the way she was fed. The baby died of dyspepsia at the age of 7 months. My mother was grieving and wore mourning clothes for a long time.