DMV

Before meeting my father, she had been in love with a naval officer… she broke up with him but never told me why… My father spotted her from a tram window — he was on a work trip to Galați, the city on the banks of the Danube where my mother grew up… She was

…but their life felt like a never-ending storm… Carmen is their daughter… she suffered the consequences…. She now lives in Italy and doesn’t want to get in touch with any relatives, including me…with anyone who lives in Romania – she never wants to return, let alone hear about Romania… I think this is her way

…but she had a son with him… Ciprian… I never met him… They divorced — my aunt represented herself again, she won, but she left her son with his father, realizing he would be better off with him… and she was right… The third husband — with whom she stayed — was a truck driver

…he kept my aunt locked in the apartment… My grandfather had to intervene to liberate her… At the divorce, she said she didn’t need a lawyer — she had learned the legal code by heart and represented herself… She won, with sharp, impeccable reasoning…

… nicknamed Didi and Cici… because nobody wanted to use their real names, understandably…not even my grandparents…they were wild, perpetually explosive, of impertinent beauty, surrounded by friends… the opposite of my mother…