From the 90s on when travelling over the borders became easy, middle-class families started employing women coming from Ukraine and Romania for household chores. Most of them were Magyar in reality. It came in useful as the thorough cleaning of flats, or moving house is always an exhaustive job.
Hanna, my ex-wife found Matild as she was recommended by one of our relatives. She came first to us with her husband Arpi. They were Magyar people from Romania. ‘They can hang me, they can cut me into pieces, they can tear my tongue out all I can only say I am Magyar’ she kept saying. She did her work with unusual speed and skill. We became familiar with her in no time. She gave a certain warmness to our home, baking cakes and keeping everything clean and gleaming.
She frequently told stories about her life back in Transylvania. Even if her mother-in-law called her a fool and suspected she went to Budapest to sell sexual services, she was always nice to her. One day she found her mother-in-law unconscious. ‘I put a tablet of Digoxin into her mouth’ she told ‘she may have heart trouble; then a tablet of Penicillin in the case she has pneumonia, some antihypertensives if it is brain-haemorrhage’ she said. We were rocking on the ground with laughter but she thought we were just amazed by her excellent performance.
On another day when she was cleaning the flat of my in-laws she took the rugs to the ranks of the corridor to dust them. She went in and out of the flat with the doors open. This corridor was seen from the opposite street. In one minute the rug disappeared. It was an awfully expensive Persian rug. She then ran to Hanna’s flat and asked Adam, my youngest son if he had taken it. Adam said no. Then he sent Adam to the neighbour called Aunt Agi to ask if she had taken it. But the answer was sadly no. Then she burst out crying. ‘Oh my God, she said ‘what have I done ! I will be imprisoned !’ she yelled. She just could not stop sobbing. My mother-in-law called the Big Hanna and told her later ‘Matild stop or I will go nuts !’
There were volunteers keeping an eye on the parking lot in front of the house as there were a lot of offices with fairly expensive cars in our house. One of them came upstairs and rang at our flat. He was to ask us to park our car in one of the neighbouring streets as there were unusually many clients on their list that afternoon. Matild thought he was a policeman. ‘Oh my God, I am lost !’ she said and ran to the bathroom. She didn’t want to believe that her job was legal and there was no rule that she pay tax. She changed her blouse, gave herself a quick brush and sprayed fragrance on herself. Then she went to the living room and asked the volunteer ‘Captain, may I bring you some fresh coffee and a slice of apple pie?’ This was how she tried to rescue herself from being controlled by the government.
