Lidia Korotina's grandmother Maria Abramovna Korotina

This is Maria Abramovna Korotina, my grandmother. The picture was taken in Nikolaev in 1930. My grandmother's maiden name was Konstantinovskaya. She graduated from school in Warsaw and was an educated person for her time. She spoke Ukrainian fluently and was able to recite the poetry of Shevchenko, Pushkin and Nekrasov. She used to recite poems to us grandchildren when we came to visit her. My grandmother loved reading. She had many books by Russian and foreign classical writers. She had an excellent knowledge of poetry and got very upset when she found out that one of her grandchildren didn't know some poem. She would start explaining about the writer and his works. She wasn?t a healthy person, though. She had a thyroid problem, which affected her movements and manner of speaking. She made delicious food: clear soup, stuffed fish and stuffed chicken.