All images are the property of Carol Kitman. Do not reproduce without permission. Write me at Leicayou@icloud.com or
call 201 321 7681 for any usage of these photos.

I first saw Sanya and genya Vindman and their grandmother, Mrs. Kalmanovitch, under the El on Brighton Beach Avenue in Brooklyn's "Little Odessa". It was more than 30 years ago. The Vindman family had emigrated to the US from Kiev in the Ukraine in December of 1979. Semyon Vindman wanted a free and better life for his 3 sons - the twins, then 4, and 11 year old Leonid. Their mother had recently died, in Kiev and when they came to America, their maternal grandmother came along to help with the boys.

The situation of their lives resonated because my mother also was brought here by family - a very small girl who had lost her mother in the old country.