It is difficult to talk about your life to other people, even if it was full of good and bad sides, like small colored stones forming a mosaic, there are memories that have been sleeping for a long time in almost forgotten corners of your soul. Anyway, I will try to tell you about when my first child was born, a boy I had always wanted to have, me and my husband – today our son is a beautiful, gown-up man, a good doctor, a loving husband and has his own children. Although I desperately wanted to have a child, I was – somehow with no reason- very much afraid of giving birth…. It happened on a frosty February day, with mountains of snow, back in 1953; my anxieties, the tremendous cold outside – all this managed to frighten my family. It was a difficult, traumatizing experience and also for the doctors that had to – against their will- use the forceps in an extremely unfriendly and cold hospital room, lacking the necessary equipment.
After 10 excruciating hours with no dilatation, I finally heard a weak cry – that meant everybody’s liberation form all the tensions and anxiety. Hot bottles, hot tears, happy thoughts – this is how that day (19 of February 1953) finally ended. The fear I felt back then left no scars, but the happiness of having and raising a child and then seeing him a grown up person, with his own life, made it all be worth it.

V.T.

This is how I looked when I was one year old, walking with my brother on Calea Grivitei. George was 4 years older that me and he loved me untill the day he died. My father was a wealthy merchant and we had a happy childhood. George and my father protected both me and my mother.We were all living in a house on Calea Grivitei, above the merchant’s shops. There was a yard were we used to do al lkind of prodigies.One of the shops was rented to a jew who owned the oldest grinder’s shops from the neighborhood i lived in during mychildhood. I stayed in touch with his children, Aghi and Sadi, untill they went to live in Israel, and since then I haven’t had any news from them.
I have a lot of memories form my childhood, but one of the most vivid ones is that about Odette, also the child of a merchandiser and my friend. If you look at this picture you’ll see, in the front, Mr. Costachescu, a mathematics teacher who (so I used to think back then) tormented me for two years, but afterwards I discovered that what I had learned from him helped me when I got my first job. look how handsome I was, more handsome even than my girlfriend, Odette. We used to go out at Carmen Silva at the sea side and look at the officers going for a walk. That dreaming didn’t turn out to be good for me, as I had barely stepped out form adolescence when my father married me to an officer. I was so naïve, I thought marriage was just like in the movies I had seen at Marna Cinema, in Piata Buzesti. In this picture you can see my first husband, whom I divorced three years after the birth of my daughter Emilia.
Now, I wanna tell you something about some unhappy times of my life, but without getting into details, as I don’t want to make you sad. After my first divorce I was alone with a three years old daughter; I met another man and remarried. But, during the next 2 years, I discovered he was an ill-tempered and violent man and then I had to put the best interest of my child on top of everything again and I divorced the second time. Then came the nationalization and we lost all our shops, we were left with nothing. And, because no bad thing comes alone, I got sick with meningitis and had to remain in hospital for 10 month. After coming out, my brother George found a job as a book-keeper in Vidra; the way to my job was very difficult, as it was very far. But I was happy to earn some mothly money for me and my daughter. The only thing that really bothered me was that I was very cold in winter as I could only put a scarf around my head; if I had put a wool of fur hat, I would have called the attention, and that wasn’t allowed. One day, while going by bus, the driver stopped unexpectedly, somebody his me with the elbow over my glasses and I had to go to surgery and lost sight with my right eye. Years passed, my daughter grew up, finished a high- school. Things seemed to have finally settled down and we bought an apartment with two rooms in Drumul Taberei. It was then when my little girl died. Difficult times came for me since that moment, once again. I had to finish paying for the house.. After 1989 my brother died and I was left completely and definitely alone. I thought nothing good would ever happen again for me in this life, until I met all of you. Getting to know you and other people of my age made me 10 years younger
I didn't do any photos of me since the happy times, and now, seeing you take pictures of us gives me great y\joy. Would this be happiness? ... I it’s been so long since I last played the piano!...

E.T.