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This picture was taken in Matyasfold. This is my sister Etel (top left) and this is me on the right. Between us is my step-mother. This is my daughter Judit (left), this is my other daughter Marika (in the middle) and this is Agi, Etel's little daughter. The picture must have been taken around 1940. My husband might have taken it. I don't know why my father is not in the picture, in 1940, he could possibly have been in forced labor already.
When they had summer holidays on the Romai banks of the Danube, they didn't come to visit, but when they were at home, they came very often. Sometimes they came on a Saturday and slept the night there. People could sleep anywhere: on the floor, on the couch, on a convertible bed. Sometimes Agi stayed at our place and even the grandmother wasn't with her- normally grandmother always took her everywhere, because Etel was working.
When I was a young woman, we played cards every Sunday. Many people came: my sisters-in-law, Klari and Iren, my step-mother's relatives, and my cousins, uncle Naci's sons. Although when we got married, my husband said, "There are no (close connections with) the relatives?, it wasn't like that at all.
We were a very hospitable household. People like to be at our place very much. Many times people came already for lunch, many times they brought lunch with them, and many times we cooked together. The card games continued even after we had the children. The family of my sister-in-law, Klari, also came, although their children were a good few years older than mine. They really enjoyed being here. My sister-in-law's family even spent the summer holiday in Matyasfold. Not at our place, but they rented a flat and my mother-in-law cooked for them.
There was so much to do. It was the custom before, to clean every day and every Friday, to do a big clean and wash the kitchen furniture. I didn't do too much cooking, because my mother-in-law lived with us at that time already and she cooked. When I got married, I couldn't cook at all. The first meal I made was inedible. I cooked tomato soup, and no matter what I put in it, it didn't taste good; I added some more sugar, some more roux, but I didn't put in any salt! I did shopping, I took the kids for walks, I did needlework, I sewed, so I wasn't the kind of person who rested a lot. I did read, especially in the evenings in bed. Even now, the book I am reading at the moment is right here. I'm not able to fall asleep without reading.
