It's not easy giving up the beach come fall. Fortunately for those who find the beach a fashionable, luxurious and healthy thing, Chicago temperatures mimicked summer this weekend attracting hundreds to the city's shoreline. Many looked to absorb some extra vitamin D, or prolong their cockroach color before the approaching dreary months.
Everyone appears more beautiful while in the sun and around water and sand, but Yelena Liderman particularly had a lot of beauty about her. The 75 year-old was dressed in a two-piece and her lipstick could be seen across the jetty. She was as comfortable revealing her past as she was sunbathing.
Yelena left her homeland of Russia twenty-two years ago to start a new life in America. Though relatives had left for the States years before her, Yelena decided against the transition as she feared that immigrant status could strip her of certain freedoms. But the political and social climate under Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the '80s moved her to begin a new life oversees. While in America Yelena learned to drive; she was fifty-something. Ultimately, she learned the language, found work and watched her grandchildren grow. Three years ago, she buried her husband.
Yelena has braved more than most, and she wears that liveliness that keeps her going. It's no wonder that someone would want to take her portrait.
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