Nagymama (Hungarian for "Grandma") is true story about Karolina Serester, an Eastern European grandmother who moves to the United States, but brings along some of her old world traditions. Nagymama fears that her granddaughter will catch pneumonia or fall out of bed while sleeping, so she makes her wear oversized pajamas, an old thrift store ski-cap, and surrounds the entire bed with dining room chairs. She even ties the corners of the blanket to the mattress with shoelaces, which keeps her granddaughter from falling out of bed, but also restricted her access to the bathroom!

This four minute, traditionally animated short is written, voiced, animated, and lived by Nagymama's granddaughter, Stephanie Yuhas. The animation was created at the Philadelphia University of the Arts using a good old pencil, paper, chalk, a still camera, and Adobe AfterFx for digital composting.

About Nagymama

Karolina Serester was born on April 5, 1911 and grew up in Transylvania , Romania . She enjoys gardening (in high heels), going to church (to gossip about the church ladies' hairdos), and greeting guests with large plates full of Little Debbie Snacks™ (which she claims to have made from scratch).

She immigrated to the United States in 1970 with her two daughters, Sarlota and Ildiko. After attempting to hide the USA VISA acceptance letter in the couch cushion (Sarolta found it), she begrudgingly came to Piscataway , New Jersey and worked as a cleaning lady for the local Howard Johnson. She likes the US now, although, to this day, she still thinks that there are "baby-pilfering gypsies" around every corner.

If you would like to contact Karolina, she would be more than happy to read your letters! Although eccentric, she is quite a nice grandma! Click here to e-mail Nagymama!

I Am Alive Because of Communism

My grandma was a single woman in her 40's, living in a two-room home in Romania back in 1950. Back then, if a soldier decided to pass through your neighborhood and you were single, you were obligated to give him the spare room of your home. Nagymama wasn't about to give up her dining room, so she asked the 28-year-old local gas meter man (who she had her eye on for a while) if he would be interested in marrying her. His reply? "No offense lady, you're not my type . . .and I already have a girlfriend. " But that didn't stop Nagymama!

Her sister, Freda, worked for a local family that was able to acquire various luxuries from the black market (mainly perfume, soap, and toilet paper - hopefully no stolen kidneys). Back then, you had to wipe yourself with newspaper, so factory-made toilet paper was quite a treat. She went to the gas man's mother and paid her off with all the illegal goodies. They got married, Nagymama got to keep her dining room and the gas man's mother got to have all the toilet paper she wanted.

But then Nagymama decided that she wanted to have a few kids to take care of her when she got old. So, she did what she had to do to produce two children (ew, gross!), and not long after that, her new husband went nuts and tried to stab her with a butcher knife. It was actually his own mother that walked into the kitchen and stopped the whole thing (she must have just gotten out of the bathroom after using all that toilet paper). And as with all temper tantrums back in the 50's, grandpa was carted off to receive shock therapy treatments to “cure” him. Apparently he later starved to death because he kept on thinking that people were poisoning him.

And that's why I am here. My mother met some Hungarian guy, and he was drunk enough to tell her that he had a vasectomy. He lied.

**This life made possible through a grant from Communism and Kahlua.