The family of Avram and Simha Pinkas

This photo was taken in Vidin in 1924. We can see the whole family of my paternal grandparents. My grandmother Simha Pinkas, nee Beniesh, who was called Sumha then, is in the first row. She was a housewife, a beautiful and dignified woman. Next to her is my grandfather Avram Pinkas, who was in the trade business together with his four sons. They all worked together - they had a family business trading with groceries. I am between my grandparents and I am one year old at that time. I was the first granddaughter of the family, everyone's favorite and I was named after my grandmother, only that I am not Simha, but Sophie. In the upper row are the four sons. The first from left to right is Jacques Pinkas, who is with his wife Roza. Next to him is Samuil or Sami Pinkas, who was still a bachelor at that time, next to him is my mother Lenka Pinkas, nee Beraha, next to her is my father Leon Pinkas, and then there is Sterina Pinkas, the wife of the third brother, Josef Pinkas. I remember my paternal grandmother as a nice-looking, sociable and kind woman. She had grayish hair and she wasn't very tall. She dressed in darker plain clothes and she didn't wear a kerchief. While she was very friendly and loved everybody, my grandfather was a little bit stricter and more distanced. They talked to each other in Ladino. I don't remember with whom my grandmother kept in touch, but I remember that she got on very well with her daughters-in-law. She had four daughters-in-law and they were all very united. Even when my father's other brothers, Jacques, Sami and Josef, already married with children, had to leave the family house, the tradition remained that every Friday everyone would come to have a bath at our place: we had a big bathroom with a shower and a bath tub and we lit a geyser. On that day my mother prepared cheese crackers and sweets and when all the children had had a bath, we gathered and played in the yard, while the others drank coffee and ate sweets. My grandfather died in Vidin, when I was very little. I knew my grandmother better, because I lived with her in Vidin and when my parents came to Sofia. My grandfather was a merchant and his four sons became merchants too. My grandmother didn't work: she was a housewife and kept the house in a very good state. She knitted very nice bed covers on a crochet-hook as well as blankets from cotton and linen. She prepared bed and table covers for all her daughters-in-law.