It's my grandfather's picture. He took a picture of my grandmother, his wife. Her name is Maria. I was named after her. We are spending time, which was our common way of spending time, we were hand farming the land.
There was only one paved road from the railroad to the mine and the rest of the village was not paved. And while people had power in the houses, they did not have running water or amenities as we know it. So we were carrying the water from the well to the house. It was done twice a day, and everybody was raising cattle and chickens and poultry and having a garden, so it was a pretty fun life. I actually was a very happy child.

My grandmother, she had a teaching degree, which I would now think of as the trade school or the associate degree. She gave up her career as a teacher because we were born and she needed to take care of her grandchildren. She told me a lot about her life before grandfather and her life after getting married to grandfather and how they traveled a lot and how they were sent to multiple places. And how simple stuff made them happy.

And then I see myself and my sister, who are both educated and we now live on the other side of the pond, and we found our place in a country that was, at that point of time, an enemy of the Soviet Union. We came full circle, and we now enjoy and see the old, the good, bad and ugly.

Since I came to the US, in 2008-2009, we moved five times cross country for jobs or education or whatnot. You never give up, and you look forward. You have a hope and you make it work.