Anelia Kasabova and Liubomir Kasabov

This is a photograph of my husband Liubomir Kasabov and me. He is wearing a parade uniform as a memory from his retirement day. The picture was taken in Sofia in the 1970s. In 1953 I moved to Israel. I was in touch with my future husband, Liubomir Kasabov, and I had already made up my mind to go back to Bulgaria. A friend of mine had introduced me to my future husband at the time when I was studying at the language school in Lovech, before I went to Israel. At that time he was studying in the Higher Military School for Construction Officers in Sofia. I came back to Bulgaria alone, in 1956, to marry and live with my husband. My husband was very brave to marry a Jew from a 'capitalist' country with which Bulgaria wasn't in warm diplomatic relations. We got married the same year, in 1956, in Varna. My husband was an army officer and he could have been fired for marrying a 'capitalist' country citizen. I accepted the Bulgarian citizenship the same year. We lived in Varna for 20 years. My husband was an officer and also had the qualification of a construction engineer. His work wasn't easy - he used to get up very early and come home late. I started working at Maxim Gorky library as a teacher in French. During the summer I used to work as an administrator at the Rila hotel in the Golden Sands resort. Later I used to work at the tourist accommodation service at the railway station in Varna. Our daughter, Madlen, was born in Varna on 24th July 1957 and she expressed a musical talent when she was still a little child so we enrolled her in the Music School. My husband was transferred from the army staff in Varna to Sofia and so we all moved here in 1970. My daughter had already started to study at the Music School in Varna and she continued in Sofia. After that she went to study the violin at the Music College, graduated and, after winning a competition, went to work with the Sofia Opera Orchestra.