Tatiana Kasymova

This is my daughter Tatiana Kasymova. This photo was taken in Kishinev in 1972. Tatiana was a 3rd year student of the Leningrad Medical Pediatric College at the time. She was going back to Leningrad after having vacations and we prepared all these fruit for her.

In 1967 Tatiana finished school. She didn’t think of becoming a doctor after finishing school. She was terribly afraid of blood. When I was preparing a chicken in the kitchen, she ran away to the farthest room. Due to this incident with a wrong diagnosis Tatiana missed her entrance exams to college and went to work as an attendant in the surgery in a hospital. In the course of this year Tatiana decided to become a doctor. We hired teachers to prepare her for the entrance exams. She went to take exams to the Pediatric College in Leningrad, the only Pediatric College in the country. Tatiana passed her exams. She and a friend of hers rented a room. She studied very well. The Soviet regime did much harm and I have my claims to it, but there were positive things as well. For example, free higher education. Tatiana finished the college and got a job assignment to Berezniki in Perm region. She worked in the ambulance for three years. Then she returned to Kishinev and went to work in that same hospital where she worked as an attendant.