"What’s happened to me since then? Nothing’s really happened for two years now, sadly. Except that my mum died. Before that? In March it was Passover. Passover is one of the most important feasts for Jews, and before it you have to do a big spring clean. And the kitchen maid got ill. We had the old cook, Ida, a nervous wreck, same age as me, and we had Márta, the other kitchen maid, but she fell over, and was on sick leave with her bad spine. A Jewish family has to turn the pockets inside-out in every last bit of clothing, and the pages have to be turned of every last book. Very rich Jewish families have a special kitchen cupboard for Passover, so there’s less of a hoo-ha, but at our place we have to make every last plate kosher. They all have to be taken down to storage and covered up so nothing can touch them, and then everything has to be dragged up to the scrubbed-down kitchen." (…)