Excerpt
couragement she was propelled toward a scholarship and in 1964 was accepted at the University of Toronto. At first her father thought it a bad idea. “Get a job in industry,” he suggested but later relented when her scholarship earned her a certain amount of fame in his social circles.
She pursued a general arts education taking courses in literature and theatre. One day while browsing the Russian Literature section in the library she came across a dual language book of Russian short stories—Russian on one page, the English translation on the other page. They were classics: stories by Babel, Tolstoy, Gorky. Each was dramatic, moody, complex. She was fascinated. Although her father discouraged speaking anything but English at home, Jennifer knew many of the Russian phrases that her mother had used with her in her childhood, out of earshot of her father. On an impulse, she checked the book out of the library and took it home.
“Look what I found, mom! Do you want to read it with me?”
Lila’s face lit up. She remembered some of the stories from her childhood. They pored over the book together with Lila reading the Russian sentences aloud while Jennifer tried to match up the English translation with the Russian text.
“I’ll teach you the alphabet,” Lila told her in a whisper. “It’s easy.” That semester Jennifer enrolled in Russian 101 and took to the language immediately. In the phrases, the sentence structure, the very cadence of the language, she could hear her mother’s voice. She had already considered majoring in languages and now her mind was made up. She also studied German, but Russian became her major discipline. Her new Russian professor was delighted. He encouraged her, nourished her. When the grammar proved difficult and she was ready to give up, he told her, “Press on. Press on regardless.” It was one of his favourite phrases and she embraced the thought.
Libros Libertad 