Tipora Blumenfeld with her older sister

These are my husband’s sisters. The one in the right is the elder. I don’t know her name and I never met her. I know from my husband that she got married in Chisinau and that she perished during World War 2. The younger is Tipora Blumenfeld. Her, I met.

My husband, Iancu Segal, was older than me. But it didn’t matter. I thought of him as being younger than me. He was born in Stefanesti, which is also located in the county of Botosani. My husband came from a family of merchants. His parents were no longer living at the time when I met him. My husband had a very hard childhood. His mother, poor soul, died when he was around 10. She died when she gave birth to his brother, Ichil. And his father remarried, he had 2 more children, both of whom died in Israel.

My husband had 2 brothers. He had a brother, his biological brother, here in Botosani, his name was Ichil Segal. He worked at the Botosani Philharmonic under the employment of Weber, and he taught at the Music High School. He played the violin very well. He hadn’t graduated from the Conservatory, he was a self-taught man. He too was an extraordinary person. His wife’s name was Fani. Both she and Ichil died in Botosani. But they have a son here in Botosani, his name is Talic too – he too was named after his grandfather –, but we call him Tucu. He was married to an extraordinary woman, Monica. She was considered to be the best teacher of Romanian. I’m not saying this because she was my niece, as I even had some quarrels with her. I debated literary issues with her. I liked Eminescu the most. She didn’t like Eminescu the most. But she died, poor soul, some 5 years ago [in 2001].

The other brother – they only had the same father –, Itic Segal, left to Israel in 1959. He was married, he had a 3-year-old son when they left. The little boy was born in November 1956. His actual name was Talic, but we call him Tion. They named him Talic after his grandfather, after my father-in-law. This brother of my husband’s, Itic, was an electrician when he left Romania, and he studied in Israel – he had no money to do that over here –, and he became an engineer. He worked at a large factory, and he earned less as an engineer than he did as an electrician-in-chief. And then he requested that he should retain his former position as electrician. They lived in Naharia. What a beautiful city… It was like a garden over there. And now it was bombarded. I was there every time I traveled to Israel, a total of 4 times. And once I even stayed there for a month. My husband’s brother died. He was younger than my husband, but he had a stroke. His wife, Rozica, is still living in Naharia. Tion got married, then he divorced his wife, he married for a second time and had a child. And he left to America, to California, he was sent there by his factory for a period of 2 years. And what did Mr. Tion do? He stayed there for good.

My husband had 2 other sisters. One of them – she was older than him –, whom I didn’t even get to meet, got married in Chisinau, she also had children, and she was probably deported to Siberia by Mr. Stalin, and we never heard from her. And he had yet another sister – Tipora Segl, Tili –, who left to Israel together with Itic, my husband’s other brother. She was about my age, but she had a heartattack and died when she was 39 [in 1967, approximately]. She was married, her married name was Blumenfeld.