Rachmaninoff's father had to auction off the Oneg estate in 1882 due to his financial incompetence; the family's five estates were now reduced to one. Rachmaninoff remained critical of his father in later life, describing him as "a wastrel, a compulsive gambler, a pathological liar, and a skirt chaser". The family moved to a small flat in Saint Petersburg. In 1883, Ornatskaya arranged for Rachmaninoff, now 10, to study music at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Later that year his sister Sofia died of diphtheria and his father left the family for Moscow. His maternal grandmother stepped in to help raise the children with particular focus on their spiritual life, regularly taking Rachmaninoff to Russian Orthodox Church services where he first experienced liturgical chants and church bells, two features he would incorporate in his future compositions.