Cursed Beauty

            In my lifetime I could have been called an extremely beautiful lady. The beauty was of no use for me, on the contrast, it brought me only sorrows. .
             Being born into the rough neighborhood of Colentina, you would give anything to get out of there. Dad had a job digging holes for the electrical poles and mom was a housewife. Mom was a dreamer but somehow it managed that all of her insecurities came down on me. .
             When I was born the mid-wife, our neighbor, said that even from birth I was a perfect child: "I have never seen anything like it." She would say to who would listen. "She was like a living breathing doll. She is going to be so beautiful as to leave men breathless." Whenever mom heard such things she would get so delighted she would go on making me another little dress. Mom tried everything to preserve my immense beauty even from early in my life. I wasn't allowed to touch anything, in fear I would damage my hands and when puberty hit me, instead of just going through it getting a pimple or two, mom would be putting cucumbers and smelly facial masks until I would start crying. My hair was another great pain as I was growing up, I was forced to keep it long in two tight braids which would hurt my head. Nobody ever asked me what I wanted. Mom became completely obsessed with my beauty. I liked going to school, learning, even though nobody cared how I managed or what grades I got. Mom only saw schoo as an opportunity to show me off once more, she would always be so pleased when I would have school assemblies. What I didn't know was that she had something big planned out for me and only when I turned 17 was I to find out .
             One night in front of our house gates a car stopped, it was 1940 and in those times cars where rare in Bucharest and whoever owned a car was no doubt also very wealthy. Through the door an elderly gentleman of fifty walked in, dressed to impress with a buchet of flowers in his hands.