Rachil Meitina with her husband Isaac Verkhovski and a colleague

I?m on the left, my husband's colleague Egorov, the producer of the Maly Theater is next to me and then there's my husband Isaac Verkhovski. This photograph was taken when my husband's friends and colleagues came to see him at our place in 2000. The picture was taken by Alexandr Glazunov, an artist of the Maly Theater. I retired in 1989 at the age of 71. My boss had retired before I did and his replacement didn't respect my accomplishments and honors. My former boss even said once, 'You need to understand that Rachil and I were organizing things here, you just barged in'. I didn't like working with him. It happened so that my boss died on the day I left my job. Actually, nobody pushed me to quit, but I couldn't work with a person like my new boss. I retired during perestroika. Perestroika didn't bring anything good into our life. We lost all our savings that we had made for old age. Our society divided into the classes of rich and poor. My pension is too small to lead a decent life. It's too bad that my husband and I have to rely on our son's support when we had worked hard all our life. When my husband fell ill he needed expensive medications and medical care. If it hadn't been for my son I wouldn't have managed. My husband fell severely ill in 2000. I had to take care of him. It was exhausting. He died in 2001. We buried him in the town cemetery near the graves of our relatives. I think Isaac and I had a good life. We were different and had different professions. However, we didn't have major disagreements. Although I earned more than my husband it didn't disturb me. My husband was an interesting individual.