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To be without learning is to

be without eyes

—Lithuanian proverb

My name is Audra

In e, Lithuanian, it means storm

But al If the soldiers we passed on the roads heard us speaking it, we could be whipped on the spot or arrested Or in soht disappear That happened sometimes

So I avoided saying e was forbidden, then my name was forbidden Which meant I had no name

Which leftI could to defy the Russian occupiers

I redoubled ainst the wind co at me, and continued down the path

I’d come this far No matter as ahead, I could not stop now

I would not stop now

Toowith those of my parents

June 1893

My father was ic

Not real ht have been, then it was inside my father’s quick hands and lively voice He was born with tricks and effects and a talent to share the audiences wherever he traveled

Hoished I could be more like him, bold and adventurous, always ready with a joke or a story Instead, I was the girl who ducked into the shadoe had visitors, the girl atched life froirl anted to bewould be the kind of ic even my father couldn’t achieve

Maic was different Since Papa’s work took him away so often, she found ways to fill our home with the s as orked the garden, and with her tender good-night kisses on my cheek

Those ti replaced the ether I loved to sit at Papa’s feet by the fire, watching hi hiuess the secrets By now, I could, of course—I’d seen every trick a hundred times and could do many of them myself, but never in public, never like him

“You can be like hione “Be happy like him, be smart like him But do not travel like him, that’s not for you”