“I was just making up fairy tales and I believed it [that my father was alive]. When mother was asking, they were telling her that he had been exiled for 10 years without the right to correspond, and exactly after 10 years, [according to the report] he died. A man named Tarasi Maskhulia told my mother that he saw a person with this name and surname on the hospital list at the Finnish border. Enterocolitis, which was written as a diagnosis, along with inflammation of the lungs, metallurgists often have - we also believed that since the Karelia-Finland metallurgical center was being built, he was there. I had some fairy tales in my head until the last minute."
“My mother used to say: I was so happy in Zestaponi, I was afraid that something bad would happen. The community was also gathered like this, but then Noe Kalandadze (director of the factory) was shot, Iliko Nizharadze was shot. Here [in the Troika protocol] the terrible word " Расстрелять" was written about my father. My father was accused of spying for Germany, because he was an electro-metallurgist by education and worked with the famous firm Siemens. Father knew French very well, he used to say to mother that he first thought in French and then translated into Georgian. As the only person who knew French, he helped Siemens a lot. At that time [when they were arrested] I was with my grandmother in Shemokmedi, I was three years old, I only vaguely remember my father's pants and legs”
“Makvala Mrevlishvili writes about my grandmother - virtuous and quiet, who loved her husband very much. In the end, a very difficult situation arose: Shio was killed, she was left with three children, she did not know Georgian, she actually had no home and no funds. No one would pay her dead husband's salary. A prominent journalist Bukhnikashvili wrote that a woman dressed in black with three children was often seen at the grave, she did not say anything and did not scratch her face, but she was talking to her dead husband. Then she asked to see the house, and the soldiers brought her into the messy house, from where she went to the Kvishkheti to her children, but she could not help herself - she hoped that the children would be raised by their aunt and she poisoned herself”
“In 1906, a terrorist sneaked into the gymnasium, placed a gun in the window or in the attic and shot the police chief. He was wounded in the leg, but armed Cossacks still broke into the school where the meeting was held, they came to Shio, who asked them what they wanted, but they stabbed him with a bayonet... Because Shio was a school inspector, and a bomb was thrown from his building, in fact, he was accused of being a terrorist. The story is still a mystery, despite the fact that the newspapers of that time are full of reports about it. Father was 5 years old then, a big funeral was organized, the coffin was carried through the whole city, while the children were at the country house in Kvishkheti.”
დალი ჩიტაძე დაიბადა 1934 წელს თბილისში, ვასილ ჩიტაძისა და ქსენია სადრაძის ოჯახში. მამამისი, ვასილ ჩიტაძე ქართული მეტალურგიული წარმოების ერთ-ერთი დამფუძნებელი, 1937 წელს სტალინური რეპრესიების მსხვერპლი გახდა. დალი ჩიტაძის ბაბუის, შიო ჩიტაძის, მკვლელობა მე-20 საუკუნის დასაწყისის საქართველოში ერთ-ერთ ყველაზე გახმაურებულ საქმედ იქცა.
უცნაურია, თუმცა დალი ჩიტაძეს გარშემომყოფებისგან არასდროს უგრძნია, რომ „ხალხის მტრის“ შვილი იყო. მეტიც, მისი თქმით, როცა ადამიანები იგებდნენ, რომ ის შიო ჩიტაძის შვილიშვილი და ვასილ ჩიტაძის შვილი იყო, უკეთ ექცეოდნენ.
1957 წელს ოჯახმა მიიღო დოკუმენტი, რომლის თანახმადაც ვასილი არ დაუხვრეტიათ და ის სინამდვილეში 1946 წელს ენტეროკოლიტით გარდაიცვალა. მიუხედავად ამისა, დალი ჩიტაძე დარწმუნებულია, რომ ეს ცნობები მცდარი იყო და მამამისი 1937 წელს მართლაც დახვრიტეს.
მიუხედავად წარსულისა, დალი ჩიტაძეს საკმაოდ წარმატებული კარიერა ჰქონდა. 1958 წლიდან პენსიაზე გასვლამდე დალი „თბილქალაქმშენის“ თერმული ინჟინერიის განყოფილებაში მუშაობდა. დღესდღეობით ის ოჯახთან ერთად ცხოვრობს და ოჯახის რეპრესიების ისტორიაზე იშვიათად საუბრობს.
