This is my first wife Luba Klinger. This photo was taken in Odessa in 1930.
In 1932 I married Luba Sharghel from Mayaki. She was born into a Jewish family in 1909. Her parents observed all Jewish traditions. Her father was a baker and her mother was a housewife. They owned a bakery, but they weren’t a wealthy family. I don’t remember their names. Luba was my schoolmate. I met her when I was in the third grade and she was in the second grade. In 1931 Luba moved to Odessa. She lived with her aunt. We met again in Odessa and fell in love.
We had our wedding in my father’s home in Mayaki. It was a Soviet wedding party since I was a Komsomol member. We invited friends and relatives. There was live music at the wedding – one of my friends played violin.
In Odessa we rented a small one-room apartment on Pishonovskaya Street. There was a small kitchen in the apartment. Luba was not a Komsomol member. She observed Jewish traditions. She made gefilte fish and chicken broth. In 1933 our son Roma was born. When he was eleven months old Roma fell ill with meningitis and died. We had a hard time then.
