Sophia grew up in an intellectual Jewish family. Her father worked as a chemist, and her mother was a teacher in a primary school. She wanted to become a famous actress or singer, but her father wanted a daughter that follows in his footsteps. All their plans and dreams were wiped out by war. Her father went to war and did not come back. Sonia and her mother resettled in Moscow. They had to start a new life. While her mother got a job at a school, Sonia started to learn at the Department of Pharmacy at the First Moscow State Medical University, in memory of her deceased father.
She received excellent marks, graduated, finished residency and was assigned to one of Moscow’s pharmacies. But only a year into her job, The Case of Jewish Doctors started. Despite the high professional qualification and responsible attitude towards her work, she was fired - ostensibly for incompetence. All she went through with her mother is hard to describe. The glares of former colleagues and the comments in the communal kitchen from evil neighbors cannot be conveyed in words. But not everyone turned against the enemies of the people and State.
One of her former classmates, Gregory, offered her help in this difficult time. He got her a job working as a cleaner at the hospital, where he worked as a chief doctor. When Stalin died, Sofia was invited to work at that same pharmacy, where she was fired from. And not just as a pharmacist, but the head! Gregory proposed, and they were married. Sonia’s Mom was already retired, and when Anya was born, the grandmother was taking care of her small granddaughter.
...The years flew by; Sophia’s mother and husband were both buried in the Vostryakovskom cemetery. Her daughter, Anna, is married to a famous Grand Master ofchess, and they live in Germany where he teaches chess in schools. Sophia Aronovna will soon be 85 years old. She was left alone, suffered a heart attack, and suffers from atherosclerosis of brain vessels. She is homebound, but when she received the food parcel from Chamah, her face lit up, and she said: Let's cook some chicken soup. My husband loved it so much...
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