Orlikova Elena’s father Zinoviy Orlikov and her cousin Mila Waintraub

My father Zinoviy (Zalman) Orlikov and my cousin Mila Waintraub.

I had a very happy childhood. I had young and happy parents. My father loved me very much. He also loved my mother very much. He always tried to make his family happy. He used to send Mommy flowers with little notes that said "To the best performer of Liszt [a Hungarian composer]" or "To the most beautiful woman in Mikhailovskaya street", etc. He also liked to do something nice for me. My friends liked him and so did our relatives. He always tried to do something nice to all people that were close to him. He issued a "wardrobe" newspaper for me. He hung it on the wardrobe and that was where its name came from. There were well meaning caricatures, jokes or photographs in it. It was issued on every birthday and every holiday. I still keep few of these newspapers. It is the dearest memory about my father to me.

My father was a very kind, caring, merry and loving grandfather. He wrote letters from Kiev and always sent little gifts. My parents visited a couple of times. My father retired, but as he was full of energy he couldn't help doing something all the time. He became Chairman of a public court at the residential facilities maintenance agency (ZhEK) in Kiev. This was a kind of social activity. They were to review all kinds of disputes between neighbors, complaints or somebody's indecent behavior, that were to be resolved at the social court sitting. My father was very enthusiastic about this work. He wrote prosecutors' or attorneys' speeches for these sittings. His neighbors respected him a lot and valued his opinion. And my father liked this a lot.