Liza's Story Part 12

It is perhaps not surprising then why Elizabeth became a reserved person.Despite all the adversity, she was always able to start again, and it is also clear what training she managed to complete.

The skills learned in the brush-making workshop came in handy for Mrs Elizabeth in the post-war years. In fact, she was even able to use all the money she had saved to pay a modest rent.In the autumn of 1928, she was even able to complete a nursing course at the Dohány Street training school, because she saw a better chance of entering a monastic order.

Despite her difficult circumstances, Elizabeth always wanted to study, but the social indifference of her time did not allow her to do so. The Lord also mentions this in the Spiritual Diary: "Remember, you always wanted to study when you were young, but you never had the opportunity. It was I who did not allow it, I put every obstacle in your way. I liked you so much that you remained completely ignorant. I already had plans for you, I just wanted to mature you for myself first." (I/27) End of quote! (Diary excerpt.) A life of twists and turns and deprivations was downright "survival training" for a respectable young girl! Great independence, extraordinary resilience and determination developed in Elizabeth. She often had to explain herself out of sudden situations and so, her innate 'swashbuckling' tendency was honed into an excellent public speaker. The 'aloofness' which was so characteristic of her personality may have become fixed in her at this time. It was not simply a distrust, but merely a refusal to let anyone within an imaginary circle. It was his 'safe home' in which he was never alone! And so it was all his life! No one was allowed too close to Mrs Elizabeth's inner circle, neither her children nor the narrator of these lines, whom she considered her "secretary"! Her self-conceit could not be considered selfishness, but rather a dignified dignity, which her eldest daughter once said to her to her face: 'my mother is like a nun's mother'. And this 'dignity' was a radiance of the presence of the Lord, even if she was not always aware of it!