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Another testimony comes from Deidre O’Neill. “She raised her arm. I asked her to do the same with her left arm. I looked at her breasts, far prettier than mine” p.133.
Andrea McCain also has the same thought with Deidre O’Neill. “I noticed her breasts, which were the most beautiful I’d ever seen” p. 203.
4.1.2. Independent
After she got divorced with her husband, Athena lived together with her son in an apartment. “It was this kind of solidarity that made me rent her the third floor of my
house in Basset Road—normally, I’d prefer tenants without children” p. 47. She also had a job “When I returned at London, I immediately told Athena about this
invitation, and she accepted at once” p. 72. She traveled without a man to guard her. “Athena remarked that she’d traveled for nearly five hours on the train with her son
on her lap” p. 133. Athena’s mother acknowledged her daughter’s ability: “It was as if all her professional success, her ability to earn money, her joy at having found a
new love, her contentment when she played with her son – my grandson – had all been relegated to second place” pp. 84-85.
4.1.3. Determined
Athena’s act showed her determination. “But Athena got up, grabbed the other girl by the collar, and started screaming: “Racist” p. 23. She signed the divorce
paper though she knew the consequences. “Because all my life I’ve learned to suffer in silence,” she replied p. 41. A priest saw one of her brave actions: “Athena stood
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before me and repeated the usual gesture: she closed her eyes and opened her mouth to receive the body of Christ” p. 44. After that she bravely criticized that Christian
rule. “A curse on this place” said the voice. “A curse on all those who never listened
to the words of Christ and who have transformed his message into a stone building. For Christ said: ‘Come unt me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest.’ Well, I’m heavy laden, and they won’t let me come to him. Today I’ve learned that the Church has changed those words to read: ‘Come unto
me all ye who follow our rules, and let the heavy laden go hang’ p. 45
She learned and adapted quickly. “When I returned to London, I immediately told Athena about this invitation, and she accepted at once” p. 72. She also had a
strong will to learn caligraphy even though she had to drive to the desert, “You shouldn’t drive alone in a place you don’t know, and you shouldn’t come here
without a guide” p. 73. She determined to learn a way to get closer to God. “But I can’t continue on my own; I need someone to teach me” p. 74. “I was quite simply
terrified when Sherine told me that she’d decided to go in search of her birth mother” p. 85.
In her journey to find her birth mother, her determination led her to a restaurant owner who knew her birth mother. She went on a journey to Romania and met the
retaurant owner whom also the leader of the gypsi tribe. When a stuck-up, intellectual young woman appears, smiling and claiming to
be part of our culture and our race. I’m immediately on my guard. She might have been sent by the Securitate, the secret police who work for that mad
dictator—the Conducator, the Genius of the Carpathians, the Leader. p. 103
