My mother Maria (Ester-Malka) Orlikova.
My mother wanted to become a doctor and she went to study at the medical institute. My mother met my father when she was a student. She wanted to become a dentist like her Aunt. My parents got married in 1923. They needed to obtain a special permission from the rabbi to get married. There was a Jewish law that did not allow two similar names in one family. And in my parents' case grandfather Kats was Zelman, as well as my father Zinoviy Lvovich. He was Zelman, too. My grandfather had to submit a request to rabbi and the rabbi issued permission for my parents to get married. They had a real Jewish wedding. They had a huppah and followed the kashruth. The celebration lasted few days and there were many relatives and friends on it. The rabbi was present at the wedding, because my grandfather was a respectable man in Kiev at that time. This was the period of NEP when private commerce was promoted in the country.
We often had guests. We got together on any holidays: Soviet, Jewish, or on birthdays. A holiday was just a good reason to have a good time and have fun. My mother sat at the piano to play and sing. She sang very well. Their friends danced. This was a very merry company. They liked to play cards. My mother was a very elegant woman. She always dressed beautifully and had a good taste in things. She could make a beautiful elegant outfit even from some plain cotton dress by adding a little ribbon or a brooch. She embroidered beautifully and could sew and alter clothes for her household. She worked at a shop that manufactured signboards and decorated shop windows. Nowadays her position could be called an advertising agent.
In 1966 my mother fell ill and died soon. She had cancer.
