This is me, Ietti Leibovici, the second from the left; the one on my left is a friend, Shely, Dita is the one on my right, and the other one is Saly. We befriended these 3 girls as we were neighbors, we used to go for strolls together, I had someone to keep me company on my way home. The main street was in the old downtown area of Botosani, where everybody would go for strolls. During summer, people would stroll down the boulevard as well, in the Public Garden, but usually it was downtown, mainly during weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays.
After I came back from Transnistria, I was living with my paternal grandparents in Botosani. They were gorgeous. I loved them very much, for they looked after me a great deal. It was after the war, and it was the period of the famine - there was a severe drought in 1947, and famine -, and they somehow managed to get by in order for me to have my morsel of bread. They could do without, as long as they could provide for me. I lived with them for approximately 4 years [Ed. note: In fact, 3 years, from 1944 until 1947], after which, when my father remarried, I lived with him, also for 4-5 years. But my father's place wasn't far from where my grandparents lived, and I was always over at their place. They were very kind people. In fact, all their children were like that, my father included. It was also from my grandparents that I learned Yiddish, after returning from the deportation. I kept talking now Romanian, now German, but my grandparents were talking in Yiddish, and I started learning it in time, and I even started speaking it myself. Even now I speak Yiddish rather well.
I graduated the first 2 years of primary school at the Romanian school in Vatra Dornei, and 2 years - 3rd and 4th - at the Jewish school in Vatra Dornei; then, when I returned from Transnistria, for another 7 years, I attended high school under the evening studies system - there were 11 grades in those days [after World War II]. I resumed my studies around 1946. I studied both under the optional attendance and under the evening studies system, as I started working. I started working in May 1949. My first job was for the Knitwear Factory as a quality controller. I got married in 1954, and I left my job at that time, I stayed at home for approximately 5 years. I secured another job after 5 years, in the beginning I worked at the policlinic's registry office for 26 years, then all the Hospitals and Policlinics merged, and everything was placed under the leadership of the Sanitary Department, and I was transferred as a cashier working for the Financial Office of the Sanitary Department. I worked there until I retired in 1986.
