Old pictures

My grandmother still desperately wanted to meet her older sister. So we (grandmom, mom and I) drove to the south western part of our country, into a valley where she was born. I wanted to get as much information as possible about my greatgrandmom Marija and her father Luka but I abandoned all hope while we were sitting in a kitchen of my mom’s cousin where two of her cousins kept talking about themselves most of the time.

I could hardly believe my eyes when at one moment one of them showed us an old picture of Luka (he was allegedly born in 1870)!

Grandmom always claimed that he had been a beautiful man but I was rather disappointed when I realized that he had not been so very handsome at all. Though, his daughter, Marija was. She was supposedly the most beautiful and educated woman in that area. She could speak three foreign languages, and most of all, she could read. It was the first time I saw this (retouched) picture of her:

Of course grandmom’s sister opened the door this time. And while we were alone for a moment, she showed me her living room and there it was… supposedly another photo of Marija! Look at her hair, how it was braided!

Both, father and daughter were good natured people; father was successful and lucky man while his daughter was not really happy or lucky in her life. She died at the age of 44 while he lived 13 more years until 1953.

When we visited the graveyard that day, grandmom put six red roses onto her half-brother’s grave. I took three of them and put them into a vase on the grave of Marija’s two sisters. Later that day I was told that Luka was buried there, too… It is interesting how many years have to pass that we get to know certain things. Grandmom learned about the burial place of her granddad Luka and the year of his death after 60 years! And all we had to do was - ask!

P.s.: It was very difficult to take photos of these pictures because all were framed and covered with glass.