Tag #145505 - Interview #92161 (Sofia Furman)

At the end of the 1980s Mikhail’s family suddenly decided to leave for Israel. They got packed quickly and in several months left for the town of Ashkelon. They wrote letters to his father asking him to come. They even took offence at me, though I didn’t hold him back. Certainly Vladimir was torn between me and them. I told him that I couldn’t leave. My mother was more than 80 years old, she was sick and senile and lived until her 90th birthday. She spent the last six years of her life in bed and didn’t get up. Besides, my son Mikhail served in the Soviet army. If I had left, he would have been dismissed from the army [21]. How could I have left? I couldn’t have left my mother alone.

My husband Vladimir left alone after long hesitation. He was waiting for me for two years in Israel and continued to ask me to come, but I didn’t go.