This is a picture of me with my husband Stanislaw Wygodzki, taken after we moved to Israel. Specifically, it was taken in 1973 at Genezaret Lake.
After we left Poland for Israel my sister Jadzia, who was living near the airport, took us in. We stayed with her for some two months. And then we went to Ulpan near Netanya.
It was a Hebrew school together with accommodation, food, everything. So we didn't have to worry about cooking, shopping, especially since we didn't have any money.
We didn't have to pay for accommodation, for food. We spent some five months there. I was in the same class with my son, so I had to try hard not to embarrass myself.
My husband's car accident, which happened while we were still at Ulpan, was a huge problem for us. My husband went to a meeting to Kfar Saba. My husband was the most seriously injured of those who were in the car.
There was also this doctor, Dawid Lazar, a journalist from 'Maariv,’ Efraim Sten, a radio journalist, who was driving and my son, Adam, who luckily wasn't injured.
My husband was in hospital for a long time afterwards, he kept shouting 'moja noga, moja noga' [Polish, 'my leg, my leg'] and in Hebrew 'noga' means 'planet,' so the doctors didn't understand what was going on.
We were also allotted an apartment then. And immediately after our arrival, we didn't yet have time to settle down, we received notification that we have to pay back the credit. It was very difficult for us financially. We borrowed money from one sister, then from the other one and then we paid it back.
Our apartment was in Givataim. We liked it best, because it was closest to my sister, Jadzia. There were six buildings there, built for new immigrants, who came from everywhere:
Africa, England, France, Morocco, Poland, Russia, Lithuania. It was the only apartment we had in Israel. We were very pleased with it.
When we started living there, there was no road, just sand. But a beautiful city was built later on. We later bought this apartment, because it was possible to pay some small sum and the ownership of the apartment was transferred to us.
