Ethe Feiman

This is my mother Ethe Feiman in this photo. She was photographed shortly before she got married and gave this photo to my father. This photo was kept in our family album. This photo was taken in Zagare in 1912.

My mother's family lived in Zagare, Lithuania. That was where my mother's parents came from. Their family name was Sonik, but I don't know their first names. My grandfather died before I was born and my grandmother died when I was still a child. My grandmother visited us occasionally, but I have vague memories of her. All I remember is that she was short, wore a dark dress and had kind eyes. My grandparents had five children. My grandmother gave birth to more children, but they died in their childhood. I didn't know two of my mother's older brothers. They moved to America in the 1900s. My mother corresponded with them until before 1940. They must have been rather well-off. My uncles sent my mother money and supported us. When we returned from evacuation in 1945, they sent us several parcels. I still sleep under the blanket which they had sent in one of their parcels. After my mother's death this correspondence stopped. We lived in Soviet Estonia, and I was afraid of corresponding with relatives abroad. In the USSR such contacts weren't safe. One of my mother's sisters and her family also lived in America. My mother, Ethe, was born in 1893. I don't know anything about her childhood. She didn't like to talk about it. My mother's younger sister stayed in Zagare.

My parents got married in 1913. Their marriage was prearranged as they lived quite a distance from one another. They got married in Zagare and the Zagare rabbi registered their marriage. After they got married my mother moved in with her husband in Tartu. She became a housewife, which was quite common with married women at that time.