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Lace maker works to make life beautiful Date published: 4/12/2004
ELIZABETH LUNGOCIA has sur- vived some ugly times. And they created in her a de- sire to make the world around her beautiful. In her world, gardens of ribbon flowers bloom from backgrounds of black and pink silk. Delicate lace and embroidery adorn everything from pillows to towels to chair covers. Cross-stitch and needlepoint samplers of birds and butterflies are framed and hanging on the walls. "I love to do the beautiful things," she said. Lungocia is a lace maker and embroiderer. The 60-year-old Stafford County resident escaped communist Romania in 1990 with her daughter and son, Jeanine and Daniel, who were then 18 and 16. A Baptist, Lungocia had been the victim of religious persecution. She was assaulted by a police officer, and her husband, a communist, left her alone to raise their children. Because of her religious beliefs, she lost her job as an office worker and was prevented from getting another. "For two years, I had no job. I tried to work on a farm to pick fruit, but they wouldn't allow it," she said. During the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu, which ended in 1989, much of Romania was engaged in agricultural production. "They said my place was to be working in an office," she said, in English still thick with a Romanian accent. "They wouldn't give me a job picking fruit because I was supposed to be in office with typewriter. "I did embroidery, but it did not help me to feed my family." Lungocia learned needlework and lace making from her mother, she said. "Since I was born, my mother, she was doing embroidery, lace, everything," she said. "In first grade, the schoolteacher asked me to teach all the classes how to do embroidery, needlepoint, lace, everything." She and her children left Romania with the clothes on their backs. She carried with her only her memories and a consuming desire to be free. "We had to leave in secret. It was very dangerous and scary situation," she said. "It wasn't easy to put my life, my children's lives, in danger to be killed at the border." Lungocia searched for 10 years before finding someone to help her leave the country. Her brothers, who escaped before her and lived in Stafford, sent her money to pay for the family's escape.
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