The Ruby Ring Story: Part III Aunt Paula

Part III: Aunt Paula

I know very little about Paula. If she would be alive, she would by my aunt. Paula was my father's middle sister. She was only twenty-nine years old when she died. She was married right before the World War II for one of the Perlow's brothers. Both of them, Michael and Jacob, voluntarily joint the Soviet army and went on front in nineteen forty-one. Both of them came home alive: Jacob, without any scratch, and Michael was limping. They were heroes like every young man of their generation. Paula evacuated from Riga in a hurry, with the family of her older sister, Amalia.

At that time, many Latvian families took a chance of evacuation going out of the eastern part of Soviet Union to the south, known as Kazakhstan, to avoid the Nazy invasion. Among the evacuee were women with children, elderly men and women, parents of military personal, etc. Paula was not alone. She was with friends, neighbors, and a part of her older sister's Amalia family. Unfortunately, they left behind their father, my grandfather, who refused to leave the country and stayed back home at the occupied territory by German military forces. There were two adorable toddlers in their community - the kids who were born in nineteen-forty, Nat and Abby. They were the inspiration of the community. Both Paula and Amalia were working at a kindergarten daycare center of pre-school children of immigrants and the locals. At the military time, every strong man, who was capable to operate a rifle, was in the army protecting the motherland from unwanted enemy invaded the country. At the same time, women went to work and worked at the plants and factories replacing the men. At every workplace, women-workers got paid with food and food coupons in exchange for their labor. Paula was proud to bring home vital products from her workplace such as flour, margarine, and potatoes. She was very devoted to the wellbeing of the children. She always was making sure that the two little boys have enough food and are healthy and happy. In fall, when all staff at the daycare got a typhus vaccination, Paula got sick. Her body was weak and did not resist the deadly disease. The hospitals were full of wounded soldiers. The epidemics of typhus and cholera were not unusual. Paula passed away very fast. The family did not have the time to grieve. On the windy-cold winter day was a fast funeral because of the sanitary issues of war time. The soil was hard and rocky. In these conditions the grave digging is almost impossible. As usual, the dead bodies were covered with rocks, and the graves were rising at the cemetery from far away. It would not be unusual, if the hungry coyotes would finish the prey. The story makes me sad that nothing left to remember sweet Pauline, not even a stone with her name.