“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” Robert H. Schuller
My grandmother was born in 1925 in the Soviet Union, a very young country, created just two years before my grandmother was born. My grandmother lived through Stalin’s regime, World War II, the Cold War, perestroika, and, finally, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The effects of such historical turmoil are usually very profound on people.

My grandmother’s life was not easy. Her family constantly struggled with money, the absence of it. She grew up having three dresses and one pair of shoes for spring and summer and one(…)