The Power of Testimony

VIRGINIA PRODAN
For years those familiar screams—Anna pleading for her
parents’ lives—carried into my bedroom. Her body grew, but
mentally she remained a ten-year-old.
People ridiculed her, but after hearing her story, I understood
that she had to make her own world in order to survive.
Fear, death, and suspicion looked at me through the bars
of the iron fence that divided our property; they taught me
about what Communism could do to a person. Sometimes
I’d watch Anna, or wave, or offer a friendly word, regardless
of the warnings. Like going to church, being friends with
Anna would have meant I was an enemy of the government.
Uncle Carol was put into psychiatric hospitals twice more.
After the second time, he was released to his son’s home. He
remained inside his room, refusing to eat and dying with the
wish upon his lips that he would have spoken up for Anna.
Although others knew him as the “crazy relative,” I believed
him to be brave.
*
By the time I started my freshman year of high school, Alina
had graduated from the University of Bucharest Law School.
Soon after this, she married an engineer, moved with him to
his hometown, and started to work there as a government
attorney.
When my family returned from Alina’s wedding, Stephen
and Elena decided I would remain in Techirghiol to take care
of them once I finished high school.
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