Shimon Danon's mother Ester Danon

This is a photo of my mother Ester Danon taken in Sofia, 7-8 years before her death in 1988. My mother, Ester Danon, was an open-minded person, even though she was deeply religious. For example, she didn't always observe the custom of not eating pork, but during difficult moments, she always turned to God. My mother was a typical Jewish woman who had to take care of her children. My mother and my father didn't marry for love - because of those times and an age-difference of thirteen years that separated them. My father got married quite late - in 1921 - because of the wars between 1913 and 1920 [the Balkan wars and WWI]. They certainly had a religious marriage in the synagogue, as secular marriage wasn't a common practice then. My father was a handsome man, a dandy - he was interested in clothes and fashion. My mother was just the opposite. My father was keen on decorating our house with sculptures and paintings. My mother paid less attention to those things. She loved reading novels instead. We used to read at home. I cannot say that we did it from dusk till dawn, but we were bright and aware of what was to come. During the war we had a chart where we used to mark the events - we were informed, and eagerly discussed everything. My father was a classical music fan. We had a gramophone with records and we used to listen to arias sung by world famous singers. His greatest pleasure was to 'wind up' the gramophone and enjoy Rigoletto and Traviata. Such things were not very common for 99% of the people in a town like Pazardzhik.