This amateur photo was taken at the beginning of the 1960s in Leningrad near the house where I lived at that time. Two happy events fell in that period: a fortunate marriage and the early years of our daughter.

I met my husband through an acquaintance of mine, Frida. It was love at first sight on his part. Love came to me some time later, and we have been together for 48 years. We got married in the summer of 1953.

In 1958 I gave birth to our daughter Julia. After her birth I didn’t work for four and a half years but devoted myself to raising our child. Then I tried to find a job near my home. Across our street there was a secret institute, and I was told that one of its laboratories needed employees.

But when I went there, I heard the cliché, “There are no vacancies,” though I knew there were. I went to work as a passport officer at the Soviet Star industrial complex. And then, having become proficient in the profession of accountancy, I worked at the Trudprom industrial complex until 1981.

My daughter lives in Leningrad. She graduated from the Institute of Motion Picture Engineers. Her daughter Olya is a student of the Agricultural University in St Petersburg.