Igor Shapiro and Raissa Motylyova

These are my children, Igor Shapiro and Raissa Motylyova. The photo was taken in Korosten 1978 on the occasion of my daughter's visit, who at that time already lived in Lvov. Our children studied well at school. Our daughter Raissa tried to enter the Medical Institute after finishing school, but it was impossible for a Jewish girl to enter a higher educational institution at that time. There was anti-Semitism on a state level and there was a secret direction of the government to admit no Jews to the most popular higher educational institutions and maximum 5 percent – to less popular ones. My daughter failed to enter the institute and went to study at a medical school. She became a medical nurse. She married Igor Motylyov, a Jewish man from Lvov, and moved to live with her husband. After she had two sons my wife insisted that we moved to Lvov to be closer to our daughter. We exchanged our apartment for an apartment in Lvov in 1980 and stayed to live here. My wife was a pensioner and I worked part time at the manufacture association in Lvov – I made boards for orders and medals. My daughter was diagnosed with lymphoganulomatosis. She didn’t have a happy life with her husband. She lived the last years of her life with us. It is hard for me to talk about it I shall never forget how tragically she was dying. She died in 1986. Raissa had two children: Pavel, born in 1972 and Alexandr, born in 1977. Pavel lives in Los Angeles, USA, and Alexandr lives in Israel. Pavel has a son – Rayan, my great grandson, and Alexandr has a daughter – Sopha. Our grandchildren write us and call on our birthdays. They invite me to visit them, but I can’t afford the trip. However, we hope to see them one day. Our son Igor entered the Forestry Academy in Leningrad. Anti-Semitism was not so strong in Leningrad during the Soviet power. Upon graduation he worked in Korosten and then moved to Lvov with us. Igor is married: his wife is called Irina, and they have two children, a son called Sergey and a daughter called Alyona. Irina, our daughter-in-law, is Russian, but she studied Hebrew, knows and observes Jewish traditions and is a volunteer at the local department of Hesed. Alyona studies at the Jewish school. She sings and dances at the children’s Jewish ensemble. She was on tour in Israel. Irina went there with her.