Leon Anzhel with his mother Yafa Anzhel and aunts

In the photo, standing, from left to right is my mother Yafa and her sister Naumi. Sitting from left to right - Rebecca, wife of my mother's brother Roben, I am in the middle with a hat on my head and her sister Matilda. The photo was taken in our house in Yambol. At that time my father was still alive and he sustained our family's good financial situation. This is visible from the way the house was furnished. The photo was most probably taken in 1924 or 1925. There is no stamp of the photo shop or any other inscription. My mother was born in Pazardzhik in 1884 and died in 1961 in Sofia. She had two brothers and two sisters: Bohor, Roben, Matilda and Naumi. She was the only one from all the children to finish a French school: Alliance Francaise. Apart from Ladino and Bulgarian, she also spoke French fluently. She married at the age of 38 in Yambol. My mother told me that she was from a poor family and didn't even have dowry or wedding chemise. That was the reason why she hadn't married the boy who she had loved before my father. His parents simply didn't agree to give their blessings under these conditions. This is why she got married so late, to my father.