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Family Is All That Matters 132 At the time of the interview, Manya was alert and very iendly. She sat in a wheelchair. Her le leg had been amputated above the knee some months before due to complications om diabetes. A home caregiver sat quietly in the kitchen. Manya and Naum talked to the interviewer in the living room. Manya describes herself as a tomboy. Because she was younger than everyone else in the family, she was equently le alone while her parents worked and her siblings went to school. "My natural element was the streets of Gorodok," she says, recalling those first four years in Ukraine before moving to Moscow. "We had a pond near our home and I love the water." She swam and dove into the pond every day the weather permitted. "I was totally fearless. I had a reputation of taking care of myself. No one would insult me or my iends because they knew I would go aer them," she laughs. Manya remembered her mother, Hava, as a strong woman. "She raised five children and never stopped working," Manya recalls. "In Above: Manya, Naum, and their son Yefim London in Moscow, 1955. Right: Yefim London and Lev at the Kremia, Black Sea, 1958. addition, she made sure that all the children had a better-than-decent education." A number of the children, like Manya herself, became educators. Manya was very proud of the family for its hard work and willingness to share the burdens. She knew that Hava had a hard life. "I never saw her laugh or cry." She remembered helping her mother prepare the candies that Hava sold at the candy stand in Moscow aer the war. She flashes a mischievous smile as she recalls how much of the inventory she ate: "I helped my mother by eliminating the candy." Manya's first memory of her father, Shlomo, was his beard. "My father always had a beard as a sign of his faith," she says. Manya also recalls her father's strength. It was a strength that came not only om his industry and ability to do hard work, but om within. "He was a believer, a man with deep spiritual strength who was respected for his faith," she says. The entire township—both Jews and non-Jews— came to consult Shlomo on the important matters of the day. Of all her sisters, Manya was closest to Inna, who was three years her senior. This made

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