From Russia: imagine triumphing over life's adversities.

I saw this photo of Elena well before I knew what she had written on the back. The image lingered in my memory because Elena's posture here is similar to a pose her sister—my paternal Grandmother, Tatjana—often struck. It's an aristocratic, proud body language that concurrently seems soft and inviting.

Here is what Elena wrote about the photograph: 

To Tatjana, my beloved one, very dear to me, my little older sister. I am always with you in thought.

My son said to me, "Mama, you are always sad."

I replied, "That's how I became after Papa died."

He said, "But you should laugh, smile. I will take your photograph."

So I imagined myself as someone who has triumphed over life's adversities. I straightened up and smiled. My son took the picture.

Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, August 1963. We don't know on which beach Elena stands.

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Thanks again to my dear friend, D, for translating the text from Russian to English.