My sister’s first name pours light on her character. My father did well choosing a name for her. It is hard to say what was there first: her name or her shiny character.

Her name is Svetlana. “Svet” means “light” in Russian.

She was actually named Maya at first, because she was born in May. All the relatives who knew about her birth were calling her by this name for almost a month. In Soviet Union, you had time up to a month to choose a name for your new-born and get a birth certificate.

So, one day my father went and had her registered under the name of Svetlana. Thus, all the relatives had to learn to call her by her new name.

My father rebelled the second time when I was born and did the whole thing again: in spite of all calling me Mihaela for almost a month, he had me registered as Victoria. My Mom was devastated. She had to inform all the relatives on the name change again. And the aunts and great-aunts have had quite of few Why-questions.

But today we are all happy about his two decisions and our names.

He also gave us very sweet nicknames. Svetlana was called “svetliachok” meaning “glowfly”. He used to say that she was the bringer of light to him. And he was completely right. She is a bringer of light. Although she is a head shorter than me, she lights brightly every room she enters, even if she might not say anything at first. And then you just get smitten with her warm smile and incredibly infectious laughter.

I love you, Sveta!