A Friend's Mother

 

Kaunas, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, November 11, 1978. This is the mother of my Mom's friend Joy. On the back of this photo, Joy wrote, "This is my Mama, Marija, in Kaunas when she reached her 80th birthday. From 1941 she endured 17 years in the Siberian prison camp, along the shores of the Laptev Sea. We survived those years in Stalin's prison listening to propaganda."

June 14

The Soviet deportations of Baltic citizens began seventy-three years ago today. See here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Cell Dogs

Inmates at Oshkosh Correctional Institution train guide dogs.

Scarves aren't just for beginners.

British prisoner claims authorities confiscated the 452-foot long scarf he'd been knitting because "they feared he would use to escape."

They're not bitching about stitching.

Brazilian inmates earn time toward release by knitting.

"Oh, they want to knit. They just don't know they want to knit."

Inmates who knit.

"This is like I'm at Starbuck's—without the coffee."