This is the family of Nikolay Mladenov (1973), Ani's elder son in Canada. Next to his wife Stanislava are their children: Anton (the baby in the cradle, born in 2001) and Mladen (1996).
As a matter of fact, I don't know when my children understood they were Jews. We used to celebrate all the Jewish holidays at home, although we didn't always observe the tradition very strictly. My children graduated from Bulgarian schools. So I am not sure if they have an increased Jewish self-consciousness. What is for sure, no one can remember of anti-Semitic incident against a member of our family.
The mother of Nikolay, my daughter Ani is an architect, but she is not working at present. As a matter of fact she was the first to marry - yet as a schoolgirl in 1973. My husband and I even had to ask for permission for their wedding, because they hadn't completed their high school education yet (Ani was then almost 18 years old). Her husband's name is Mladen Mladenov, they were classmates. She was still a schoolgirl when she gave birth to her first child Nikolay. Nikolay graduated from the Sofia's High School of Mathematics, after which he married and went to Canada. At present he lives there together with his wife Stanislava, also a mathematician, and their two children. Ani's daughter is called Elena (1978). She graduated from the Construction University in Sofia and is a water conduit and sewerage engineer. Now she is practicing her profession with a company.
