Elka Roizman's family

This is our family picture. I am in the center in the front. In the 1st row, from left to right are my mother's sisters Khone and Surah Braiman, my mother Leya Braiman, my father Shloime Braiman. My father's older brother Zeidl Braiman and his wife Miriam are standing behind him. In the 2nd row are Joseph, the husband of my mother's sister Surah, my mother's sister Rukhl, her husband, and the husband of my mother's sister Riva and Riva. The photo was taken in our yard in Karpachi village on my 7th birthday in 1938. My grandparents had six daughters. My mother, the oldest one, was born in 1902. Her sister Rivke was born in 1903, Frodl in 1904 and Surah in 1906. Rukhl was born in 1911 and the youngest one, Khone, in 1914. All the daughters, except for the youngest one, got married and had children. Only Aunt Riva had a love marriage. There was a quarry not far from my grandparents' house where her future husband, a Jew, worked as an accountant. Riva was a very pretty and vivid girl, and he fell in love with her. The other sisters met their husbands through matchmakers. There weren't enough young men in the village, but matchmakers were looking for partners in other places. My mother's youngest sister, Khone, was single. She was introduced to a teacher from Beltsy at the beginning of 1941, but the war destroyed their plans of getting married. My parents also met each other through matchmakers. They had a traditional Jewish wedding in Karpachi in 1928. After the wedding they moved to Yedintsy where my father came from. They didn't have a house and had to rent an apartment. I was born in Yedintsy in 1931 and named Elka after my grandmother on my father's side. My brother Boris was born in 1934. My father was working for a landlord. Soon after my brother was born my parents decided that it would be easier for them to make their living in a village. They could grow vegetables and keep livestock. They moved to Karpachi. In the beginning my parents rented a house from a Moldavian woman. My parents worked at the sugar factory in Repichany village, across the river from where we lived. This factory operated during the sugar treatment season, from the beginning of fall to spring. The rest of the year my parents stayed at home and took care of us, children. My mother did the housework and made clothes for us. In 1936 my mother bought a house in the village. There was a plot of land next to it. It was a small house, and my parents bought construction materials to build a new house on this plot of land. After my mother bought this house she quit her job to be a housewife. She had a big kitchen garden and grew flowers. She also kept chickens, geese and ducks. She sold poultry to poultry dealers. My mother also sewed at home. She bought a sewing machine after she got married and made very beautiful clothes for her clients. My mother was a beautiful woman and liked beautiful clothes. She liked to buy new clothes for the money that she was making by sewing. I always wanted to learn to sew, but my mother refused to teach me. She said that I wouldn't have time for myself if I learned to sew. When I turned five I went to cheder in our village. The cheder was housed in the synagogue. It was a one-storied synagogue. There was a section for men on the right side and one for women on the left. My brother also studied at cheder. On Fridays and Saturdays Jews came to the synagogue to pray, and on the remaining days of the week children studied there at cheder. We learned prayers and verses, but I can't remember any of them now.