Paula Iancu and Rebeca Gatlan

This is a picture of my grandmother Paula Perla Iancu, and my mother Rebeca Gatlan, nee Scharf. The photo was taken in Barlad. The way Grandmother is dressed was the fashion at the time, with a big hat on the head. My grandmother dressed in an ordinary fashion. Only the wives of rabbis used to dress differently.

My mother's name was Rebecca Scharf - she bore my grandmother's maiden name - and she was born on 16th October 1911.

My grandmother was quite a woman. She was a perfect housewife. She was married twice: her first husband was a certain Iosif Feldman, and the second was called Iancu Haim. She lived in Barlad when she was with the former. I know that man was my mother's natural father. Grandfather Iosif Feldman left for America - I don't know why - and didn't came back until my mother got married.

I met my other 'grandfather,' that is, my grandmother's second husband, the one named Haim; I used to call him 'Uncle Haim.' Iancu Haim was the one I met last, so I considered him my grandfather. My grandparents lived in Iasi, in the Podu Ros quarter.

My grandmother remained in Iasi for some time after Haim's death, and then she came to Braila, to live with my parents. She stayed with us for a while - I don't know for how many years - but, around 1948, she signed up for Israel and she left there by herself. I don't know how old she was when she emigrated - she wasn't that old though - but she left nonetheless, because she had a daughter there - Frida Scharf, my mother's sister - and two granddaughters.

I know my grandmother lived in an old age home down there, but the conditions were good. She spent quite a number of years in Israel, but she didn't live at her daughter's. She suffered from diabetes, and she used to eat a lot of fruit and sweets in Israel, so she got into a diabetic coma at some point, and never recovered from it. She died in Israel, in 1959 or 1960.