Tag #129331 - Interview #100103 (Ester Vee)

I went to work as a lecturer at the Department for Pre-school Education of the Tallinn Teachers’ Training School where I met my future husband, Veljo Vee. Our school also housed a vocational school where Veljo was a student. Later my husband told me that he often saw me in the lobby of our school and thought that I was a student of the Teachers’ Training School. Had he known I was a lecturer, he wouldn’t have dared to talk to me. It was fortunate that he believed me to be a student and approached me. For me, it was love at first sight: it was either to be him, or no one else. We met in May 1956, and in late 1957 we got married.

Veljo was born into a farmer’s family in the village of Rapla in 1933. He was the second of five children. Veljo’s father died from pulmonary tuberculosis shortly after the war. His wife had to take care of the household, raise five children and go to work at the kolkhoz [27]. Veljo’s older brother was 16, Veljo was 14, and their youngest sister was just two years old. Veljo’s older brother worked in the field, and Veljo stayed with their younger brothers and the sister.