'I have always loved people': a 105-year-old Russian-speaking American woman from Texas told about the secret of longevity

War veteran Frida Davydovna Skolbova 11 may have turned 106 years. The woman was born in 1913, in the Russian town of Bologoye, and 1996, together with her husband, moved to America. She survived the horrors of war, and lived a quiet life in Houston. Our Texas told the amazing story of long-lived.

Update: Unfortunately, a few days after publication, Frida Skolbova passed away. ForumDaily expresses condolences to the relatives and friends of Frida Davydovna.

Photo: Frida Skoblova

Frida Davydovna was born in the small town of Bologoye in 1913 year. The father is a master of watchmaking, the mother is a housewife, the family has five children — three girls and two boys. Mother died in the war in 56 years, father - in 72-th year of life.

Skolbova married in 1930 year, she has two children: son Igor and daughter Flora. Through 5 years after her marriage, Frida Davidovna moved to Leningrad with her family. Husband Evgeny Ivanovich Athos worked at the Victory 1 factory, Frida Davidovna worked at the Victory 2 factory. When the war began, Yevgeny Ivanovich worked as a dispatcher at the Ladoga route “The Road of Life”, and Frida and her children were evacuated to Tashkent. After the blockade was lifted, the husband went to the front, commanded an infantry platoon and died in 1944. Frida Davidovna was left alone with two small children.

She worked as a civilian in a cartographic military unit at the headquarters of the Central Asian Military District, here she was awarded a medal for excellent work. When she turned 55, she decided to retire to help the children. The son had a son, and the daughter had a daughter, he had to nurse the grandchildren. All lived in different parts of the city, had to travel by train, everywhere it was necessary to keep up: from Igor to Flora, from Flora to Igor. Now Lenochka's granddaughter works as a translator for an oil company, this is her parents and grandmother who came from Leningrad to Houston.

Skolbova told “Our Texas” about her childhood, as in 1923, she went to Tallinn with her mother to visit relatives.

“We arrived very badly dressed then - what kind of clothes were at that time in Rybinsk! And my mother's family tried to put us from head to foot in new, beautiful things - and so we went abroad for the first time. ”

Frida Davydovna also recalled her passion for music and ballet, studying at the ballet school at the music college: “The first performance in which I participated was “Princess Turandot.” Once I danced for a boy, because only girls studied ballet. I was wearing a straw boater and a suit and tie. Before our performance the presenter came out and said:

“Don’t whistle about the tie - this is a special role - the bourgeois.” I danced together with one girl, and at that time the second ballerina came out with a red banner, apparently symbolizing this very freedom.”

She also remembers ballet performances at the Kirov Theater, which Frida watched every single one of them. And my favorite was “Swan Lake”. Upon arrival in Houston, I also went to opera and ballet whenever possible until recently: “The performances here are, of course, rich, but I didn’t like everything. For example, in “Giselle” the ending is not at all what it should be - they don’t like it when it ends badly: everything should be like in the movies.”

Photo: Frida Skoblova

Frida Davidovna tells how, after graduating from school, she applied to the Institute of Chemical Technology. The documents did not accept - "fifth paragraph":

“I had to simply study the courses. Although neither before nor after this incident, I did not feel that my Jewish origin has any significance for people. ”

She recalls how her husband, Eugene Athos, who adored ballroom dancing, went to the House of Culture before the war: “We were distinguished as one of the first couples, even given a prize once - for performing a mazurka.” Frida's husband died in 1944, the 31 year of his life on Estonian soil. He is the only one from the family who has not returned from the war. Frida Davidovna met the end of the war with joy in her heart and tears in her eyes. Upon returning from evacuation to Leningrad, it was necessary to take care of the children, and even defend their own apartment on Bolshaya Podyacheskaya, opposite the Yusupov Garden, occupied by a crafty neighbor. Frida lived for a month with her children in her own hallway and only through the court did she manage to evict her neighbor.

She also recalls the fashion of 50-x, when a hat, like the one that one Mexican actress Dolores del Rio was wearing, became fashionable for all women of the USSR. But it was not particularly fashionable to dress - simple people lived very modestly. Had to work a lot. After the war at the Admiralty Factory, Frida Skoblova was in charge of the drawing department. She went with drawings to Severodvinsk - there they built the first nuclear submarine.

Photo: Frida Skoblova

She remembered the 11-point storm in the Baltic Sea, which often had to travel with documents for the delivery of ships: “The waves were so huge that they rolled over the deck and covered the ship as a whole. From the deck everything was demolished, all the lifeboats were broken into pieces! We lay in cabins and watched in horror the raging sea. The storm was over at night, we went on deck - what a beauty it was! It seemed that the ship was walking along a silver moonlit path. ”

Of course, I remember coming to America on 1996:

“The most striking thing in Houston was that there were no people on the street — only cars. After the crowds on Nevsky, it was strange to get used to this emptiness. Peter is my favorite city. I never thought I'd leave from there. Therefore, after leaving for the United States for several years, I went there to visit my son, who did not want to leave. I love the suburbs very much, so I visited Peterhof, Pushkin, Pavlovsk every visit. ”

I remember a trip to Germany - Berlin, Cologne:

“I was amazed at the perfect cleanliness on the streets and the national food: funny sausages“ arshin ”. I was very touched by one of the monuments in the city center: a pipe from the stove, in which poor Jews were burned, either in memory or in edification ”.

In recent years, Frida Davidovna lived a quiet life, communicated with her friends, with whom she visited the Blue Bird pension a few years ago, every Sunday she tried to invite everyone to tea.

“The doctor tells us with her daughter: you both don’t look your age. I never thought that I would live so long. I think: the more you fight, the longer you live. People rather leave a good life - artists, for example, young people leave, they give a lot of their heart. Maybe I live a long time because I have never drunk, smoked, led a healthy lifestyle, or maybe because I have never complained, never cried to anyone? I have always loved people, always met them with a smile, therefore they treat me well, ”says Frida.

For reference: in Houston people like Frida can be counted on the fingers: 101-year-old Bertha Mack York, 100-year-old Juanita Gallatin, and possibly other long-livers not known to the press live here However, unfortunately, Frida Davydovna did not live only a month before her 106 birthday.

Recall earlier ForumDaily told the story of the 100-year-old Russian-speaking immigrant in New York Lydia Girstein

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