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Leo and I loved each other and had a very good time together. We didn’t think of what could happen in the future. We had a very nice company of friends and we had great fun when we met. He [Leo] would come to my house, my parents knew him, even though they didn’t at first know we had an affair. Maybe they did think something was going on, but my father and my brother never made a comment.
When my mother learned we had an affair she said, ‘My child, we know Leo and he is a very nice chap. It is you who is going to live with him, and we won’t interfere to tell you either yes or no. You are to decide. We do not care if he were a Jew and you a Christian. You will live with him.’ Neither did I hear my other relatives, uncles, grandparents say something. Only the landlady of our house said “Good, one more will become Christian”. But my mother did not speak, she laughed and did not speak, because the landlady was a nice woman and meant well.
When my mother learned we had an affair she said, ‘My child, we know Leo and he is a very nice chap. It is you who is going to live with him, and we won’t interfere to tell you either yes or no. You are to decide. We do not care if he were a Jew and you a Christian. You will live with him.’ Neither did I hear my other relatives, uncles, grandparents say something. Only the landlady of our house said “Good, one more will become Christian”. But my mother did not speak, she laughed and did not speak, because the landlady was a nice woman and meant well.
Period
Interview
Eugenia Abravenel