In this collective photo first from the left is my relative Feiga, I called her "the small grandmother", though she was not really a grandmother to me.
These are all relatives from the side of grandmother Faina, the Leningrad grandmother [Valentina's grandmother from mother's side], the wife of my grandfather, who was very religious. All of them died during the blockade and are buried in Piskarevsky cemetery. I do not know all of them by names and who is who.
Grandfather married my grandmother. As much as grandfather was soft by nature, in the same degree Granny Faina was an imperious woman, and we, children, did not like her.
Grandmother [Faina] died in 1940, she is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Kontorskaya Street in Saint Petersburg. Almost all my relatives, grandmother, grandfather, my sister, Mum, Daddy and uncle Abrasha, all are buried in Kontorskaya Street, near the synagogue. For all of them they read the burial service in the synagogue. And the custom was to cut off a small piece of the nearest relatives' clothes, - daughters and sons, for some reason.
All relatives on the side of grandmother Faina, my Leningrad grandmother, the wife of grandfather Zorakh, died during the blockade and are buried in Piskarevsky11 cemetery. Of them I remember the small grandmother, named Feiga.
She was very tender and kind, of very small height, and that's why I called her "the small grandmother". We met when I came to Leningrad [1930s]. And then, later, we did not communicate any more. I was about 7 years old then.
They lived in 16 Zagorodny Avenue 12, near the post-office. When Aunt Maryasya was alive, she knew their grave, and she had shown it tome. And only this year I skipped going to Piskarevka, because of my leg, otherwise I go there [to Piskarevsky cemetery] every year.
