Gabriella's grandfather was an amazing person who somehow forsaw what was coming. He groomed Gabriella's mother, Georgina into an exceptional person. She existed in a sort of bubble and she was convinced that nothing would harm her. 

 

When the Jews were instructed to wear the yellow star Georgina's mother put it on proudly. She would not hide the fact that she was Jewish. Georgina saw that these people were not being treated very well and soon her mother was ushered into a holding facility. Georgina's brother dawned a fake uniform and took his gun to the facility where he found his mother and freed her. After that they went underground. Georgina changed everything about her outwardly appearance to stay safe. She looked inside herself and found that one sparkle she could hang on to and nourish. She used this sparkle to not only survive but thrive and she developed an incite far beyond her time. 

 

When I asked Gabriella what the raw emotions of this kind of experience were she reminded me that she was just a small child at the time but she described it as a surreal experience. They lived in an exclusive part of Budapest by a film studio and often saw wondrous things like elephants on the way to the studio. The day that Russian tanks came down the road it was Gabriella's birthday and she thought they were headed to the studio and shooting because it was her birthday, until the neighbor came busting into their home proclaiming that her home had been riddled with bullets. Gabriella said this experience is something you never truly recover from. 

 

Her mother always exhibited a controlled calm. She was always well groomed and upwardly mobile. She was once arrested by the secret police for selling her paintings (which was illegal under communist rule) but she walked out of the Hungarian jail ten days later without one hair on her head displaced. The scariest day for Gabriella was the day she finally saw her mother lose control and break down because of the extreme stress of the situation surrounding them.

 

Gabriella doesn't really know how her grandfather saw what was coming. He had some dealings with the stock market crash in the US but for Gabriella, as a child, she didn't see the precursors that society was displaying. Gabriella reminds us that no matter what is true for society if it is not true for you it isn't true. She reminds us that we should all stick to our morals and try to do what is right no matter what is forced upon the minorities, "Always live within your own integrity."  She believes that it is not the wall outside that matters but the wall that we build within ourselves that truly matters. She states that if we can stay active mentally and physically within our own hearts we can make anything happen. The key is to be yourself and do not be influenced by outside forces set to bring you down.