This is my wife Charna Berznitskaya, nee Pressman, (in the center), her parents, her sister Nehama and her brother. The photograph was taken in Moletai in the 1925.
After the war I found a job with a state supply company, Gossnab, in Lithuania, where I worked all my life. I had to think of my personal life as well. I liked some Jewish girls. I also had pals, with whom I spent time. None of my temporary girlfriends aroused such deep feelings or affections as I felt for my brother Isroel's widow, Charna. In the postwar years we lived in one apartment and Charna treated me like a brother. She also had suitors. I liked my nephew Aaron, Charna's son. I didn't want Charna and Aaron to leave our family, so I proposed to her. My action corresponded to Jewish traditions: the younger brother should marry the widow of the elder brother. Charna agreed and in the late 1940s our marriage was registered. Charna was two years younger than me. She was from the Lithuanian town of Moletai. Charna's parents, her brothers and sisters - I only know the name of her younger sister Nehama, as we keep her picture - perished during the occupation in Moletai.
After a while I got my own apartment. In 1952 our son Ilia was born. We had a happy life together. Charna was a true wife and friend. I did pretty well at my job, while Charna was a housewife and raised the children.
