This is a big family photograph. In the foreground is my husband Naum and me. Standing from left to right: Valeriy Lifshitz, my younger daughter Ella's husband, my granddaughter Yelena Lifshitz, Ella Lifshitz, my older daughter Inna Rozenfeld, her husband Leonid Rozenfeld, their son Roman Rozenfeld. This photo was taken on 22 April 1990 on my husband's birthday and on the occasion of Ella and her family departure to Israel.
In 1958 my husband was transferred to Kherson. In the first years we rented an apartment and later we invested in construction of a cooperative apartment. This is where I live now. I was very happy with my husband. He was an amazing person: kind, cheerful, very smart and an erudite. It seemed there was no existing subject of discussion that he couldn't talk about and no questions he didn't know answers to. My husband always had good positions and earned well. We had an interesting life going to the cinema, to theaters and spending vacations at resorts. I had everything I ever wanted. I was always in public as a teacher and later deputy director at school. I joined the Party and was secretary of the Party unit. I wouldn't have made a career otherwise. I always dressed in trend and beautifully. Naum enjoyed buying me new things. My mother helped me about the house and I wasn't overloaded with work at home.
In 1980s Naum worked at the machine building plant as an engineer, although he didn't have an engineering education. When perestroika began he established a cooperative manufacturing construction materials. His cooperative was one of 15 other cooperatives at the plant that survived and developed into a successful company. I can say that perestroika gave my husband a full opportunity to reveal his talents and skills. Our life improved even more. We bought nice furniture and a dacha and supported our children even more.
Our girls studied well at school and got a higher education. Inna finished the Faculty of Mathematic of Kherson University, and Ella finished the Faculty of Physics at this University. Both of them have Jewish husbands. Inna's husband Leonid Rozenfeld is also a mathematician. Ella's husband Valeriy Lifshitz is an engineer. Inna is deputy scientific director in the experimental lyceum school in Kherson. Her son Roman, born in 1980, finished Polytechnic College and works at the same plant where my husband used to work. Ella, her husband and daughter Yelena moved to Israel in 1990. She didn't want to move there leaving us here, but her husband insisted on their departure. Yelena, born in 1977, got married very young in Israel. In 1996 my Ella called me and said: 'Mother, congratulations on your having great granddaughter Daniel-Nehama!' When I heard that my granddaughter was named after my mother I burst into tears of happiness. Naum went to Kiev to obtain a visa for me and sent me to Israel for a month. So I visited my daughter and saw my great granddaughter. I admire Israel, it's just amazing! It's a civilization in a desert created by its people. However, I wouldn't stay to live there: the climate is hard and besides, I love Ukraine. It is my home. It's familiar and dear to me.
