Lifelong Friends

My Mom's closest childhood friend didn't live in the same city as Mom. She instead was from Mariampolis, the town in which Mom's maternal Grandparents, Silvestras and Zigmunta, resided.

As a result, Mom usually saw this friend only during the summers and Christmas holidays.

I'll call the friend "Joy."

Joy did not get out of Lithuania. She and her family were among those deported to Siberia in 1941. Joy spent seventeen years in Siberian exile.

When Joy returned to Lithuania, she reconnected with Dora, who by then had moved into the house in which my Mom had lived. Joy kept an eye on Dora until Dora died.

Joy, like Dora, was one of the people who mailed to us many of the old photos that I post here.

Panemunė, Lithuania, about 1927. My Mom—the child on the right, wearing dark tights—stands in front of my maternal Grandmother, Jadzė, as they visit with Joy and her family. Mom and Joy grew close because their mothers had been childhood friends.