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My mother Reizia (Rosa) Bekovna Loshanovskaya Novograd-Volynskiy, about 1912.
My mother Reizia (Rosa) Berkovna Lashanovskaya was born in 1898 in Novograd-Volynskiy. I don't know anything about her life before the revolution. During the civil war she was in a partisan unit where she met my father.
My mother and few other volunteers opened a Jewish orphanage in Novograd-Volynskiy. My mother was its director for some time, but then she was assigned to go to Kiev to continue her education. She finished the Jewish Pedagogical School . Ten my mother returned to Novograd-Volynskiy and was director of a kindergarten. She worked in the institutions for children all her life as a tutor and music teacher. She had a beautiful soprano. When I was a child I was in the care of our housemaid. She milked the cow and gave me some milk. After my father's death we moved to my grandmother Lashanovskaya. She also died and we moved my mother's friend. She and her husband and her son (we were the same age) lived in the house of an Orthodox priest. His was a very big house. At that time people like him having bigger living quarters let other people get accommodation in their houses. Such was the rule at that time that did not allow people to own bigger living areas. There was a beautiful orchard near the house. We, kids, were allowed to eat whatever we wanted there and play with dogs. However, even this well off priest didn't have power supply or running water in his house. The early 30s were the years of hunger in Ukraine. It was difficult for my mother to survive in that smaller town and we moved to Fania in Kiev. My cousin Fania worked as cashier at the railway station and her husband Boris was involved in commerce. Fania lived in a communal apartment with 18 neighbors and no water or toilet. We lived so for about two years. Then my mother received a small room as a widow of a red partisan.
