Gabi D., 48 years old, Wels
The first attempt to leave Romania was during communism, around 1987; I had just turned eighteen and finished high school. At that age, it seemed like child's play that does something secretly.
If you ask me now, I think we were a little unaware of those who chose to risk our lives. What made me leave? I remember my father who was a driver all his life. He was driving one of those DAC trucks that always broke down, and I can still smell that smell of diesel mixed with petroleum jelly. Being somewhat close to the border, in Resita, I often heard stories about those who managed to flee the country, stories about a world that seemed to be imagined. I wanted not to be a driver for a few pennies that were not enough until the next paycheck and I promised myself that I would do anything to get out of the country. I don't blame my father for anything; He struggled to give us a beautiful childhood, which I did, but after I grew up I started to see better what was happening around me.
We made plans for a few months with a good friend and one night we wanted to cross the Danube, but we were caught. We were taken under arrest and after many humiliations, we were imprisoned. We were looked upon worse than any thief: we were "traitors." We stayed there for two years, and after we were released we made a new attempt in the very year of the Revolution, but this time we succeeded. We spent a while hiding in different places because we were still wanted even across the border. When I think about it now, it seems like everything happened in another life, a long time ago and it's like I'm not that old... (laughs)
When we arrived in Austria, we noticed that even the sun was shining differently. Everything was beautiful for us who came from a gray world, but for the others it was normality. I didn't dare to write to those at home right away because I was afraid of being discovered. I found it quite easy to find work in a packaging factory near Sankt Polten and I remember that in a few days, I was earning as much as my father earned in a month in Romania. My co-workers didn't seem as friendly as people are in Romania, but I respected this and now I think it's better this way.
After '90 more Romanians came to Austria, and in '92 I met my future wife. Together we have a 5-year-old girl who is in kindergarten. We now live in Wels, fifteen minutes from Linz. My wife works in the food industry, and I am a line manager in a factory.
We go to Romania a few times a year, but only to visit our relatives and see the "estate" (smiles). I would like to return home at some point, but it's not the time yet. We want our little girl to finish school here and maybe then we will come back to the country to try a little business in old age. I want our little girl to have an easier life and not go through what I went through. Being born in Austria and growing up here, I don't know if she will choose to live in Romania, but who knows?! Now people move from one country to another very easily. It's not like it was 25 years ago...
Mihai I., 52 years old, Innsbruck
My whole life has been dedicated to children. I don't even have anything to tell outside of them. They were and are the meaning of life, reason, and love, the center of my universe, I revolve around them like a satellite in orbit.
For reasons known perhaps only to her, the woman I married chose to leave our lives and look elsewhere for her happiness, of course abroad. I didn't have much time to lick my wounds because the days were full of the effervescence of the boys who never stopped surprising me with their exploits. He left us when Claudiu, the youngest boy, was only 2 years old when he was starting to discover his little universe with small steps.
Bogdan, our eldest son, was then 5 and a half years old and suffered more after his mother, he internalized himself and sought to alleviate his sadness in his world.
I don't like to complain, I've always been strong and not very impressionable, I just want to tell you the cause of things.
Quite quickly and almost unexpectedly, I decided to go with them to Austria, the country that would help me raise them well and beautifully, where I could offer them everything they needed for healthy development: a good education, a decent home, and a good living.
Said and done... In two months the three of us were moved to a small but very welcoming apartment, the children enrolled in school and kindergarten, both state-owned, which did not involve additional costs, and I found a job as an engineer in an institute near my home.
The days went by so quickly, so busy and turbulent, that I don't even know how they passed so quickly. Everything was new for us, the people, the language, the house, the activities. We didn't have much time left for heavy thoughts or heavy tears, we were preoccupied with our daily lives every moment.
As the years passed, the boys caught strong wings and strong souls, they learned well and prepared for life in a warm atmosphere of friendship and happiness. I can't say that they didn't miss their mother, with whom they resumed contact shortly after we settled, but the bond that was created between the three of us was magical: it was as if we were three comrades destined to go through the many adventures of human life together.
We were linked for life by countless invisible threads stemming from the books we read together, from the movies and shows we watched thirsty, from the trips, vacations, and stays that were not missing year after year.
Austria was a deliverance for us, she welcomed us warmly and offered us her gifts one by one. We were good and we integrated quickly and correctly, we respected its laws and norms, and we were good citizens who contributed to its well-being.
Now Claudiu has become an engineer, like me he loves what he does very much, he works near Graz. Bogdan finished medicine, he is a doctor at a clinic in Vienna. Each one evolved well, matured, and grew as he wanted. But I think I was the best: I am extremely satisfied with what I have achieved. On my own, I raised two boys and I laid the foundation for them the most beautiful qualities: honesty, diligence, truth, courage, ambition, and especially kindness. It's a great thing, believe me, to reach my age and to be satisfied, happy, fulfilled. I feel that my mission has been accomplished, I have done my best. I was the maximum of what I could be. I don't know many people who can say the same about themselves, but I know a lot of people who can boast about a majestic house, a car of caliber, a great love past, a fulminant career, a lucrative business, a life of luxury....and who feel empty despite the wealth they have accumulated.
Cristian G., 39 years old, Salzburg
We decided to leave the country for a short time, just enough to raise money to buy a car. We had been married for a year and a car was our dream at the time. We lived in a village near Baia Mare and we wanted to visit the surrounding places at the end of the week.
We chose to go to Austria in the summer of 2005, when my wife, a French teacher at the school in the village where I lived, was going to go on summer vacation. And me? I was a fresh engineer with a degree that didn't help me much. I was in charge of the computers of a company in Baia Mare, I was devising them, installing various programs on them, etc..., small things. Why Austria? Because it was close to us, less than 1000 km away, we had some basic language skills and we were willing to do any kind of work to fulfill our dream, of having our car.
One summer day we left with excitement and a lot of courage for Salzburg, because we knew a former high school classmate who settled there, and his initial advice would be useful to us. The road went smoothly and we quickly arrived in the city that would conquer us forever. I started working at a confectionery shop in the city, and my wife was a maid at a hotel. I still remember the fresh air coming from the mountains and the silence of the street where the confectionery shop used to go every morning at 05.00 to prepare the creams and doughs, which would be beautifully arranged in the window to delight tourists from all over the world.
As they say...we had a "sweet" start (laughs). We don't even know when the three months passed, reserved to raise 3000 euros as much as a second-hand car would have cost. We worked 7 days a week, and so did my wife, which is why in the first two months we didn't leave the city at all, and anyway our short-term goal was to raise the money needed for the car, which motivated us to the fullest.
It was already the end of August and we were planning to "retire home", the money was already collected and we thought of buying a car here and going home with it, to show the family the "trophy". So we did, we took a small car and went home. My Austrian boss at the confectionery made me a proposal to stay because the cold season is coming when the city is filled with tourists and needs me, but I was determined to come home, that was the plan, that was what I promised our parents.
And we left...I remember that when we entered the country through Nădlac it seemed like suddenly everything went dark, no lights on, it was already difficult for us to drive, the road full of mud, and our silver car, which was clean until that moment, in a few minutes turned brown..... We were black with annoyance, we walked almost dumb home, and we arrived late at night. From the morning we were assaulted by parents, brothers, sisters, and cousins to tell them how it was. I was still with the fresh air of Austria in my lungs and I gladly told them many details...." I sweetened them too".
We re-entered our known rhythm, my wife returned to school, it was already September 15, and I returned to the company in Baia Mare. Shortly after, I was told that my job was going to be reduced to part-time, which also meant a significant salary reduction, and living on the money of the wife of a novice teacher, of 600 lei per month, was impossible. Only car insurance was a quarter of this money.
By Christmas, we would decide that I would return to Salzburg, and my wife would also come back from the summer. That's what I did... 11 years have passed since then, and we have two children born in Salzburg, a house taken on credit since 2007, before the financial crisis, we go home to Baia Mare once a year and maybe they will return us permanently to the country for retirement, but until then there is still... who knows what will be then...
Ana I., 27 yeras old, Viena
I left Romania when I was little, at the age of 11, together with my mother and sister. It was like a threesome adventure, I didn't see it as an estrangement or separation from the country. Our mother raised us in a more daring spirit and taught us from an early age to enjoy challenges, and not to run away from them.
Therefore, here we are, alone, in Austria, a beautiful country, both from a landscape and cultural point of view. People, at first, may seem distant and cold, but once the period of acquaintance has passed, they become friendly and warm.
We have Austrian friends, we go out together and spend time with them, we go to the movies, shopping, or picnicking. Now we have a light life, I think, quite different from the one in Romania. If we had stayed, my mother would have always taken care of each day, taking care of homework, bills, clothes food, and all sorts of other worries, more or less oppressive. There is no such thing here, we are very good from all these points of view.
I graduated from the faculty of architecture, and my sister is in her last year of law school. Soon we will start our careers and strive to become better and better in our field.
Didn't I tell you? My mother raised two winners.
My father was present only sometimes in the picture of our family. After his parents divorced, he also chose the path of abroad and has been away in Germany for 15 years. He works in construction and earns well enough that he can always send us money.
Because I left the country as a child, it was not difficult for me to adapt here, I learned step by step first the language, then the course of things. Everything came naturally, it was nothing forced or overwhelming. Maybe it was a little harder for my mother, but I don't think so, as I know her, she turned the difficulties she encountered into all kinds of challenges.
I never had any kind of lack, of money, books, vacations, or food, maybe just time spent with my mother. He worked a lot, he was a doctor at the central hospital in the city and he had surgeries and guards most of the time. She instilled in us strength, faith, courage, and especially independence. He said that only these characteristics lead to a free life lived according to one's liking. He did not believe in any form of coercion, subjugation, or dependence, he knew, and he taught us, that to become vigorous and fulfilled people you must develop these qualities.
He didn't accept to apologize or be sensitive, he didn't encourage our whining, and he always pushed us to the heart of the problem. He never spared us and told us to face unpleasant situations with courage.
He didn't tie us in laces when they were untied, he didn't bring us sandwiches or juices, he didn't pick us up and he didn't clean our rooms. She was an atypical mother, totally different from the other mothers who melted after their rains, who spoiled them at every step. Her love manifested itself in other ways, not by encouraging whims and riots.
My sister and I were lucky to have my mother behind us all the time to cuddle, support or reprimand us as the case may be. Now I think she is also completely happy, once for us, because we grew up and became grown-ups, then because she also met a good and tender person who loves her and understands her as she is, with all her pluses and minuses.
My mother's friend is also a doctor at the same hospital where she works, they form a great team, they consult each other in more serious cases, they complement each other very well and they love each other very much.
I am glad for her, for our family, that we have traveled this sometimes difficult road, sometimes serene, but always together.
I think that any obstacle that life has in store for you, you can overcome quite easily if there is this "together". We have lived, we have loved and we have overcome everything together.
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