My grandmother Valya did not know her father or her date of birth. She lost her brother during the war, survived famine and had only seven grades of education. She knew how to see beauty and grew flowers. She appreciated beautiful things, but in her youth they were almost impossible to buy. She loved adventures, but never traveled outside the Soviet Union. She also told funny stories and had a rich imagination.
"I don't know my date of birth. When my father was taken from home at night in '37, my mother was pregnant with me. She wanted to have an abortion, but I was born alive. My mother said that the snow was melting then. I don't know my date of birth, so I made it up myself."
Valentina Lomakina (Miroshnychenko)
