Cousins

Today marks my mother's birthday. She was born in 1919, a hundred years ago today. Perusing one of her old albums, I come across an interesting photo.

I recognize my mother's older sister Lydia, on the left, my mother, in the middle - but who is the girl on the right?

A caption under the photo says: Olga Gruenke, our cousin.

Strange! I've never heard of her!

The album has several more photos - of Olga as an adult on her wedding day, another an older-looking Olga with her husband and five children.

How did my mother manage to keep in touch with her over the years?! Did they write letters? As children, they must have been close...

I ask my cousin Rose-Marie, the chief genealogist of the family... It appears that Olga is a cousin on my mother's father's side. My mother's father died when she was two years old... They must have kept over the years.

My mother was 9 when her family immigrated to Canada. Her sister Lydia was 11. This photo must have been taken in the Ukraine before my mother's family left. Is that why the girls look so sad?

Olga's family didn't manage to escape the Ukraine before Stalin's land grab. They were among the unfortunate ones sent to Siberia, where Olga lived until her death on July 1, 1986, according to another note in the photo album.