Rene Lichtman - August 13, 1998
Catholicism
You didn't know before...
I didn't know. I had no inkling, I didn't know what it was. There was no reason for me to know. The less I knew, the better, in terms of security, safety issues. Um, I had um, I had my, my ring with my Virgin Mary on it. I had my uh, little book of prayers and I remember some of the prayers. You know, that was, it always helped, uh, if you're going to be Christian, you might as well know some of the prayers if some people are going to stop by and ask. Um, so...
What prayers did you learn?
Oh, I, there was uh, ainsi soit il, I mean, if it came back to me, there was these, you know, there was all these prayers in these, these books with all these beautiful pictures of saints.
Catechism. Is it catechism?
Is it catechism? I, I don't know. It was...
You don't remember any?
No, no. But if they, if somebody, I mean, there was a certain rhythm to them, you know and all that. And, and what I also remember were the, were the books. The prayer books were, uh, always had all these saints and they were all very beautiful. So visually, aesthetically, I kind of liked looking at, looking at all that stuff, you know.
Did you ever sing them for your mother?
Uh, no, I don't think so. I may have uh, at, at some point, but I um, no, my, my mother was um, was, was pretty jealous of that, that relationship, so--and I realized that, so I tried not to--I mean, I tried, but I, I really did antagonize my mother quite a bit, because when I went back to her in 19...after 1945 um, in Paris and now, we went back to our old apartment, it was just the two of us um, I, I was a difficult kid. And so whenever we had problems, I would say to her, I want to go back to Mama Nana. And uh, she...
Uh...
...and she would...
What, what did you call her?
Mama Nana. And Nana is uh, like a nourrice, which is a foster uh, parent. When you say they put you on nourrice, they meant like a day care center, or foster, foster parent and uh, so she was Mama Nana. And then I had Mama Ellen, which was my real mother.
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