Tsivye, Tanya, Lena and Inna Sukhenko

My mother with her daughters: Tanya - 68, Lena - 56, Inna - 48. Mother is 86 here. The picture was made in 1968 in Kiev. My parents had 10 children; four of them died young. The first boy died when he was eight days old from blood poisoning when he had circumcision. Three girls died in the first year of their life. One boy also died. My elder sister Taube (Tanya) was born in 1902. She married when she was very young. Tanya was going to be a painter, but unfortunately had no chance receive a good education. She began to work only after the death of her husband. Tanya was a secretary. She had no children of her own, so till the last days of her life she lived with our youngest sister Inna. Shmil, i.e. me, was born in 1908. Then, in 1912 our sister Entah (Lena) was born. After graduating from the seven-year school, she married. Lena was a housewife, raising two sons. The youngest, Inna, was born in 1920. She was single. First, she worked as theatre designer, then as a book designer in children publishing company. From the whole family only the two of us remained on this earth. My younger brother Fima was born in 1925 and was killed at the front when he was 18 years old.