“The whole earth was covered with snow,

and the Snow Queen’s sleigh came gliding.

I heard the bells behind me,

and ran, and ran, till I was out of breath.”

During the typhus epidemic

she almost died, and would have

but for the woman who lived next door

and cooked for her and watched by the bed.

When she came back to life

and saw herself in a mirror

they had cut off all her hair.

Also, they had burned her clothing,

and her doll, the only one she ever had,

made out of rags and a stick.

Afterwards, they sent her away

to Odessa, to stay with relatives.

The day she was leaving for home

she bought some plums, as a gift

to take back to the family.

They had never seen such plums!

they were in a window, in a basket.

To buy them she spent her last few kopecks.

The journey took three days by train.

It was hot, and the plums were beginning to spoil.

So she ate them…

until, finally, all were gone.

The people on the train were astonished.

A child who would eat a plum

and cry… then eat another!

*

Her sister, Lisa, died of Typhus.

The corpse was laid on the floor.

They carried it to the cemetery

in a box, and brought back the box.

“We were poor—a box was worth something.”