Woronoff / Voronov

Blogs which describe people or events related to my maternal line.

Tatiana, Tot, Mama, Mom, Mum, Nana

My mother – she had many names over the years, and she grew into each of them elegantly and with style. Born Tatiana Pavlovna Woronoff on 9 November 1922 in Nice, France to Olga and Paul Woronoff, refugees from Russia, my mother was to live in various parts of France

Read More

Thursday’s Child Has Far to Go

Does anyone still recite the nursery rhyme “Monday’s child”? I believe it was written to help children learn the days of the week. It goes:           Monday’s child is fair of face           Tuesday’s child is full of grace           Wednesday’s child is full of woe           Thursday’s child has

Read More

The Woman Carrying Two Giant Easter Eggs

Among the many postcards my mother and grandparents collected over the years is one which definitely speaks of Easter (pictured above). It is of a lady dressed colourfully, with a small red hat on her dark brown hair, an upturned collar and what looks like a green scarf tied around

Read More

Sick and Desperate: no hospital would admit her

Surrounded by panic about the spread of Covid-19, what better way to spend an afternoon than researching my grandmother’s experience with disease during the Russian Revolution. I turned to her book, Upheaval, to find out how she was affected. She is not the best at recording dates, but I can

Read More

International Women’s Day – Women of Strength and Courage

The photo collage above shows various pictures of the strong women in my immediate family – my mother, and both my grandmothers. I do not have to look very far from these three women to find strength, courage and determination. Although from different backgrounds, both of my grandmothers were refugees,

Read More