Elena, Chiojdu

Elena remembers her life with a lot of grief and suffering: When she was a child, Elena quickly learned how to do the "man's" work on her family's farm. Up in the early hours of the morning, she would help her mother take care of their animals and work the land until nighttime. She would continue to do this way into adulthood, after her husband left her alone with her children. With the comfort and protection of religion, she lived through the war, the famine, collectivization, the revolution, the famine in her village after the fall of communism shut down the local collective, the transition to the European Union, the COVID-19 pandemic. Every time she has a break in her day, no matter how small, she prays.