Cousins of Sidonia Illes

In this picture there are my cousins, who were younger than me. It was taken in front of the house of our maternal grandmother, Braha Moskovits, sometime in the 1930s. We seldom saw my mother's relatives. When we did, this usually happened at my grandmother's. We only paid visits to the ones who lived closer. Blanka didn't live far, but all the others were married and had moved to other places. I never went to Czechoslovakia or to Dej. Nevertheless, all brothers and sisters would come to my grandmother's to see one another every year. They arranged to be there when others from other places would be too, so that they could meet. We were a beautiful family and we cared about these things. I know that my mother's sisters, my aunts, paid visits to one another. The grandchildren who came to my grandmother's would sleep in one of the three rooms. The children would not come all at the same time, as we lived in different places, so there was enough room. I would go to my grandmother's on my own and spend the entire summer there. My parents wouldn't come with us, as they were busy; but we were on vacation. I remember reading all the books that my aunts read. I think they also borrowed books from the library, because I always found a lot of books there. In my childhood, when staying at my grandmother's, I would speak Yiddish. But there were also many books in Hungarian. My grandmother and my aunts spoke both Hungarian and Romanian. I enjoyed staying there very much, as I was free, I wasn't supposed to do anything and I spent my day in the garden, climbing trees. When at home, I had to take care of the younger ones. But they didn't come to my grandmother's, for this was a place for the older children. It was my grandmother who cooked for us and took care of us.