These are the women of our family: my mother Rayne Faingolts is sitting in the center, then I’m standing to the right, my sister Riva Shternere is standing next to me. My sister Dora Moskovich is sitting to the right of my mother, and to the left is my sister Malka Atamuk. This picture was taken in the 1950s in Vilnius, by our house.
My mother didn't live to see her third grandchild. In 1959 I gave birth to a boy. He was called Jakuba, after Jacob Yatsovskiy. My mother had passed away, so my mother-in-law helped me raise my boy. Maria and I bonded well. She didn't have a daughter, but she considered me to be her daughter. I loved and respected her as well. Maria died in 1972. She was buried in the town cemetery, the way she wished. After all, she was an atheist.
All those years I was keeping in touch with my sisters. The eldest, Dora, worked at a secondary school as a mathematics teacher. Then she retired. Dora died in 1985. Her daughter Elena got higher education. She lives in America with her family. Riva couldn't forget her husband, who perished, for a long time. She was often proposed to, as Rivasya was a beauty. She couldn't make up her mind to get married. Finally, she agreed, but it wasn't the best choice. Her husband, a Jew, Shtrenene, didn't act the way a Jew was supposed to. He liked liquor and got drunk, and then he became harsh and aggressive. Riva moved with him to Klaipeda. There she gave birth to twins: a boy and girl. Riva died early, in the mid-1970s. She was afflicted with jaundice. She was taken to the hospital and passed away there. When she died, her husband took the children away, and we didn't get in touch after that. I don't remember the names of Riva's children. I only saw them two or three times in my life. My third sister, Malka, and her husband left for Israel in the late 1970s. Shleime died a couple of years ago and Malka lives by herself now. They didn't have any children.
