Tag #113787 - Interview #95602 (Alexandra (Shifra) Melenevskaya)

He arrived in Leningrad to enter a technical school. We got acquainted, when he had already graduated from the Institute. I married late, and he married late too. There was a party devoted to November 7; there was a concert in the Cultural Centre for Firemen. We got acquainted with Nikolay, we danced much that evening - he was very good in dancing. It happened on the eve of a holiday, on November 5 or 6. There was a holiday next day, and he told, that he would come to visit me. And he came, really. I got prepared for his visit - I liked him very much. I set a good and sumptuous table. As a matter of fact, I had boyfriends, but I liked Nikolay very much. When he came, we had a lounge for a while, had a talk, and soon Nikolay left, explaining that he had to visit his relative in a hospital. He left and disappeared for two months till the end of December – he gave no telephone call. And only before the New Year day, several days before the holiday, Nikolay suddenly made a telephone call to the maternity home. He said he would like to meet me. I answered that in general I did not object, I was only afraid not to recognize him, because I had not seen him for a long time (that was my way to be sarcastic). Certainly, we met with him, and it turned out that he had been urgently sent away on a business trip to Sakhalin Island for these two months. At that time he worked in Giprorybflot (the State Research Institute for Fishing Fleet) and they put him out to sea for two months on board a fishing-boat.

We decided to meet at the corner of Nevsky prospect and Sadovaya Street. We had a walk in the center and agreed to celebrate New Year's Eve together in the company of his friend's colleagues. And on December 31 Nikolay came to my place, brought a lot of canned food – at that time it was unknown to us here in Leningrad. For the holiday I baked a pie with lemon and bought some tangerines. We met and went to New Year’s Eve party. We did not get a hearty welcome, we were acquainted with nobody, except Ludmila and Egor (Egor was Nikolay’s coworker) and we decided to leave. Nikolay arranged a car, Egor told the host that his wife was suddenly seized with headache, and excusing ourselves this way, we left for my place. And all the night long we celebrated New Year's Eve enjoying ourselves. In the morning I had to go for day-and-night duty to the maternity home, and Nikolay escorted me to the door.

Broadly speaking, this meeting was a key one for our acquaintance. We were going about with him for some time, and then we decided to arrange a wedding trip, before registering our marriage. We went to Pena Lake (Kalininsky oblast) - a midwife of our hospital lived there and invited us to visit her to have a rest. Nikolay was a true fisherman, and she told there was a lot of fish and smart mushroom places. And really, we had a very good rest there. And when we came back home, in September, we registered our marriage. That is why our family life started right before our marriage. Our friends were very much pleased with our marriage and on the day of our wedding (they were in the South of the country on the day of our wedding) they sent us a phototelegram with a playful congratulation with a series of unambigious drawings (rusme009.jpg).