Greta David Mairova

This is a picture of my sister Greta David Mariova, nee Cohen. The photo was taken in Sliven in the 1950s. My sister Greta was born in Sliven on 17th September 1933. I was very jealous of her. She was rather spoiled, because she was a very beautiful child with huge eyes, and people paid attention only to her. Once, I don't know how it happened, I was hit by a cart. Fortunately I wasn't wounded at all, but everyone got pretty scared. I remember I was lying on the ground and people were bustling around me, when I suddenly said: 'Come on, come on, I know you aren't worried that much about me!' It is the baby only that you love!' Later, when we grew up, my sister in return felt somehow neglected. There was probably nothing like that. My grandpa, for example, gave open preference to the youngest person in the family. He always loved the last-born child, and ignored all the rest. My sister Greta finished her studies of Russian philology just like me. First she wanted to study biology, but later she took up philology. She was allocated to work in the village of Belovo. A cousin of ours introduced her to her future husband, and it seemed as though she married somehow deliberately, as she didn't want to stay in the province. Her marriage wasn't a happy one because they weren't a match. I still keep thinking that if she had been with somebody else and he had been with somebody else, both would have been happier. They have one son - Anri, born in 1959. Currently my sister lives in Israel, in Tel Aviv. After my mother's death Anri left for Israel and remained there. It seemed as though his decision to settle there was spontaneous and yet I think that he had made that decision before he left. Later my sister and her husband, who passed away shortly after as a result of a heart attack, also left. My sister didn't live very well in the beginning because she cherished the illusion that the state would take care of all her necessities, while in reality the social support she got was rather insufficient. Currently both she and my nephew are quite well off. He lives in Ramat Aviv and his mother is looking after his children.