Tag #145767 - Interview #102250 (Zoya Shapochnik)

My mother Pesya was born on 25th December 1902. They said that my mother was a rare beauty in her childhood. The neighbors used to say, ‘Go look, what a beauty has been born from Gersh.’ The maid, a Moldovan, who worked for my grandmother, crossed herself and prayed saying, ‘What a miracle, such a beautiful girl is born on Christmas!’ My mother, the only daughter in the family, was the favorite. In her early childhood tutors came over to teach her so that she would be prepared for lyceum. It was a state lyceum. There were wonderful teachers in it. My mother remembered her Russian literature teacher Orlov, who plied her with love for Russian classics. My mother recited poems written by Pushkin [17], and Lermontov [18] till the end of her days. She was very knowledgeable about Russian playwrights. She was interested in theater in her adolescence, following in my grandmother’s footsteps. My mother worked in the apothecary of Uncle Lazar. First she weighed and poured the medicine in the bottles. Then she learnt how to make medicine. She was so good at it that she became a professional pharmacist.