I set me a very last deadline till the end of January, I abadonded myself to my fate even if I seemed to be powerless against, I still had one chance, to gamble with it. All or None. I couldn’t do anything else but waiting for a miracle. Today it sounds like a fairy tale, it was hardly to believe in those days either, but the marvel did happen. Not only one but more. On January 1st the Iron Curtain fell, the hungarian people were allowed to go wherever they wanted to, if they could afford that. They got back their liberty, so they could not get political asylum with the aid of the Swiss Convention anymore. Actually I received THE fellowship from America, I had applyed for shortly. All at once I got rid of all my worries, I won half a year to stay, to live. I even got a job in January by a filthy rich Jewish-Hungarian family. I learned there how to cook, and doing the cleaning I slipped around on their persian carpets. After a month I had enough of that. Living there has not brought any advantages yet, I had hoped for. I wasn’t free, not at all, but caught in persistent unsecurity and loneliness. I had no time for developing my art, no time even to think about, since I landed on the stage of the hard school of life, and first of all I had to learn the art, how to survive.
RICHIE HAVENS • FREEDOM