My mother Anna Portnaya. My mother had this photo made in Odessa in 1929 to give it to her future husband.
My mother was born on 5 June 1908. She was a tall blonde with hazel eyes. She studied in a Russian secondary school for some years and then had to go to work, their life was hard. She worked at a baker's shop on the market. It was hard work. She handled tons of bread during a day. When her mother died my mother had to take up all housework and care for the other children. My grandfather was looking for a wife and grandmother Betia's relatives didn't want to support the family, although they were wealthy people. Such severe life conditions strengthened my mother's character. She was a proud and brave woman She could always stand up for herself and her younger sisters. A year after his wife died my grandfather remarried. I don't know what happened, but in a week's time my mother packed this woman's belongings and sent her away. My grandfather was very upset about his daughter's behavior and moved to his wife, but he returned to his daughters shortly afterwards.
My mother met my father Grigoriy Slopak in 1929. They got married in the same year. They had a civil ceremony that was customary during the Soviet period. They lived together for 5 years and separated in 1934 two years after I was born. I don't know why they divorced, because my mother didn't discuss this subject with me. My aunts joked about it saying that my father simply escaped from our mispokhe (Editor's note: family in Yiddish).
