Bill
What were some of your own personal feelings, besides sensing a risk? What were some of your own emotions related to this return to Romania? There was a strong history regarding not just your escape from this country, but also what your family had endured in Romania.
Agnes
Let’s summarize it this way. Both my parents had suffered through the Ceaușescu regime in Romania, which didn’t fall until several years after the Olympics. There had been years of authoritarian rule, a personality cult, and communist repression.
My mother was a highly talented pianist, having been acquainted with and worked throughout her life with some of the most noted musicians in the world – such as Radu Lupu.
My father died as a result of a party t
rial (a sort of extra-judicial process). I lost my dad to that ordeal. Even though he was rehabilitated, as they call it, my dad had a heart attack shortly thereafter. We paid that enormous price. My mother lost a man that she loved and I lost a father.
A big part of my departure from Romania had to do with that trauma, and having seen so many of our friends suffer, being imprisoned, and being coerced into all sorts of positions. So, that’s what made me decide in my second university year to find a way out, which I did.
