Romania is a very religious country.
There are statues of the crucifix at the entrance of every city
and there are four bibles in my home:
one black, one green, one blue,
and the one with a red cover is from my mother's mom.
My mother prays to the Virgin Mary more than any other figure.
She prayed when she was struggling to get pregnant with my elder sister
and when she was born she gave her the middle name Mary.
One Easter there was a movie on TV about the last days of Jesus Christ
and the actress who played Mary was Romanian.
My sister and I watched it
and seeing Christ tortured made me nauseous.
One time at school we were crafting with paper.
One of my classmates' mother and I share the same name.
He scribbled a cross on a scrap of paper.
When it was time to clean up, he was hesitant to throw the paper away
because it would mean throwing the cross in the garbage.
There is a Catholic cathedral in my city.
My mother and I are Orthodox,
but we visit it sometimes because it's pretty.
The painting of the Virgin Mary has her wear pale pink and green.
In other churches I saw it deep red and blue.
My sister found out she was pregnant around Christmas
and her due date was in the middle of August.
On August 15th is the Feast of Assumption,
when the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven.
My sister gave birth to a baby girl on the 18th
and her middle name is also Mary.
My mother and I went to the Catholic cathedral
And thanked the Virgin Mary for my niece.
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A. R. Tivadar is a hobby writer from Romania and a graduate of the University of Oradea. She has been published in underscore_magazine and has self-published stories on kobo.com. twitter: @artivadar | instagram: @a.r.tivadar