San Jose Mercury interview
translated by Alex Rozovsky
December, 1999
been surrounded by people who loved and respected me. I have never hurt
anybody and never felt rancor if somebody tried to hurt me. As for the
nutrition, I've never kept diet and always eaten whatever I liked. It's
what's in your heart and in your head that matters, not in your stomach.
home from the battlefields of the World War II. I was alive, my family
was alive, and life seemed to be just beginning.
a week. Later I continued my career in retail, and retired as a manager
of a large sporting goods store.
and 10 great-grandchildren, whom I dearly love and proud of. All of them
were with me at my 100th birthday last December.
Russia, witnessed the Russian revolution, and fought in the Civil War. I
lived in independent Latvia and survived the annexation by Stalin. I fought
Nazis and struggled under Soviet regime. I lived long enough to see my
native Latvia independent again, and was strong enough to come to America
at the age of 91 and become a US citizen at the age of 97. I saw three empires
fall and freedom triumph. Those were most dramatic changes I have seen, but
hardly surprising.
it now if you could?
the Nazis occupied Latvian capital Riga. She and her family perished.
how long it may take evil will be defeated and good will prevail.
grand- and great-grandchildren, looking forward to the new century —
my third.