By Smaktakula

Twenty-three-year-old Rifca Stanescu had mixed emotions regarding the coming of her first grandson.  Of course she was happy for her twelve-year-old daughter on the birth of her child, but couldn’t help wishing that the girl had waited a few years before following Rifca’s example and throwing her life down the toilet.*

Stanescu can take some satisfaction that her daughter will grow up in an age where she is able to  make her own choices, such as the decision to marry her husband at age 10.  Rifca Stanescu didn’t get to make that choice.  When at 11, her family refused the marriage proposal of her future husband’s family, she was kidnapped and raped, which in Romany (the universally beloved folk formerly known as the Gypsies) culture, apparently means you’re married.

*It is not accidental that Smaktakula employs the verb form of ‘throw’ rather than ‘flush.’  In fact, Romania does not yet have flush toilets. ∞T.