14 Quotes by Margaret McMullan

Seems like nothing's getting safer or better," I said. "Seems like everything's getting worse." "Maybe that's what's gotta happen," Willa Mae said. "Maybe everything's gotta break lose and fall apart before we can put it back together again right.

He (Friedrich Engel de Jánosis) stated clearly that he was the last Engel de Jánosis, when in fact he knew he was not. He left behind his mother, wife, and daughter, all of them Engel de Jánosis. And then there were the Hungarian Engel de Jánosis, his aunts, uncles, cousins still alive in Pécs and in other towns and villages in Hungary. He knew this. They were not dead, not yet anyway, but in his mind, they were. Already, the historian was rewriting history.

Maybe they were right — Friedrich and all the other Engel de Jánosi’s who got out and never told their children or grandchildren the whole truth. They didn’t want to burden or overload us with family history. Too much baggage meant we wouldn’t be able to move forward and into a bright future. Too much bitterness, anger, and sorrow leads us into that dark rabbit hole of despair. They didn’t want to introduce us to their ghosts. But those ghosts find us anyway.

It starts with the father. But for me, it started with my mother. My mother and her secrets.

It’s so difficult to say goodbye because, really, we’ve only just said hello.

Look at me. You are the first person to ask about him. Do you understand? No one has ever asked about this man, your relative, Richard. No one has called him down. No one ever printed out his name. You are responsible now. You must remember him in order to honor him.

Why did you marry Dad, Mom?" My mother sniffled through her nose, looked at me, then smiled. "I wanted something more and he was it. We both had big dreams." "That must have taken a lot of courage," I said. "To marry Dad. He was so different from you.""It was hardly courageous. It was just the only thing to do. We were in love.

Perry was leaning into my mother as he listened to what she said. They talked so close. He only leaned closer, his hands on the table, his leg touching hers. "It's so risky," my mother said. "Why are you doing this?""Because I'm human being. Because we're all human beings."My mother closed her eyes and winced. Maybe her hearing aid was ringing and bothering her, but as I watched her turn down the volume, I wanted to tell her right then that she couldn't quiet all those outside voices forever.

At which point exactly does the past give way to the present, and does time ever intersect? Through years of occupations, this house on Rákóczi út was forced to give way to new inhabitants. Just by being here, standing here in from of this house, we are bringing them all back, through memory.