Brief lives

Russia 1898 or thereabouts.
Only the youngest child, Boris,  survives to adulthood. And eventually becomes my father.
His brother Dmitri and sister Natalia die young. When, where, why, I don't know.
Perhaps the elderly woman is their grandmother. I don't know.
There's so much I can never know.
But Natalia seems to know,  as she gazes out of the photograph with empty eyes, that she can expect nothing from life.