My mother is Slovenian. This diary is a tribute to her and her gentle footprint.
I was born in Slovenia. Both my parents are Slovenian. After the 3rd Slovenian diasphora, whether living in Hungary, Austria, Italy, even Sweden and New Zealand, Slovenians self-identify and gather to speak their native tongue. Over the last 100 years there have been 3 incarnations of Slovenia. The latest incarnation of Slovenia was in July, 1991, when Slovenia "divorced" Yugoslavia. The European Union is looking at the 20 year "divorce agreement" between Slovnia and former Yugoslavia.
Today, in Illinois where my family finally settled, there are 1,500 known Slovenians.
I have learned the Slovenian language from my parents. My father died a couple of years ago, but mother keeps his memory alive through frequent Catholic Masses said in his memory. My mother, from an Austro-Hungarian Slovene family, was Lutheran/Calvinist by birth but converted to Catholicism when she married dad.
Mom has lived her life with modesty. She's only worn a trace of lipstick for special occassions. Her fingernails are short and clean. Her home is spotless and even though she's 82, she still keeps her home and garden tended beautifully. True, for the last few years she's had let go of her vegetable garden, basically a gazpacho garden, and has hired a lawn service. But she still tends to her plants and waters the lawn, all by herself. In her home, she still does everything for herself and her frequent visitors and guests. She cooks, cleans, and launders. Her linen closets would pass the Martha Stewart test, with their spotless, ironed, and precisely folded white linens and damasks. Her sliver chest is hidden and its contents polished twice a year. She no longer brings out the silverware since dad died.
Her day begins with daily mass, on TV since she can no longer make it the church daily. Daily mass is on EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network, the global Catholic news channel) My mother's cable is set to EWTN's channel and then to MSNBC, PBS, in that order. EWTN link: http://www.ewtn.com/
There are lots of family pictures in inlaid-wood frames. There are a few religious icons. The Bible on the dining room table, a crucifix above her bedroom door, a pewter and wood 3-dimensional rendering of the Last Supper on a kitchen wall, a painted wood icon from Marija Saal in Austria. Mary holding the infant Jesus, is over the doorway to her laundryroom. Link to the story of the Slovenian church in Maria Saal, near Klagenfurt, Austria, these are disputed territories. http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The rest of her house has her Hummel's, Lazlo's, Rosenthal's, Limoge's, Wedgewood's, and most importantly her Slovenian Rogaska crystal. Her treasures. "Dust catchers" is whst I call them. She loves to dust and to vacuum.
After her daily mass on EWTN, she makes herself the same breakfast every day. Two pieces of natrual whole-grain toast with butter and jam. One toast will have apricot jam the other toast will have another jam, usuallly strawberry, lignonberry, or raspberry. One or two cups of freshly-brewed Folger's coffee with cream.
Then she tends to her indoor plants, the orchid, the philodendron, the large reefy-looking potted plant in the living room bay window, Then the cut flowers on the kitchen table get their water changed and get their ends trimmed and rinsed-off. Every day, the vase is washed. Every day. Mom says, "I get to drink fresh water every day out of a clean glass, so do my cut flowers."
She always watches "The Price Is Right" and loves the new host, Drew Carey.
Outside, she has potted plants. In large urns going down the stairs, she has red flowers with lots of green foliage. In the summer, on the front porch, she always has a large hanging basket of trailing White Petunias. In the back, on the porch and on her terrace, she has huge urns filled with very large flowering shrub/small trees that are moved to the garage for the winter and trimmed. When it's safe for her flowering trees, they are brought outback via a trolley. Already having soft-green buds, she anticipates the flowering, not having ever marked which has which color flowers, she waits to see which ones will bloom as white, pink, yellow, or red. She has a built-in grill, but hasn't used it since dad died. Dad did all the grilling.
For lunch, mom usually has what looks like a dutch pancake, either savory or sweet and a salad. Sometimes she makes her lunch pancake with buckwheat and spreads sour cream and sprinkles it with either sweet or hot Hungarian paprika. Once in a while, she'll have a sandwich from the Polish deli and some Polish pickles.
For supper, she nibbles rather than eat.
After supper she always watches "Wheel of Fortune". Two TV shows and the news on MSNBC, some PBS, and that's her TV experience. The last movie she saw on cable was "Young Victoria" and the last movie she saw at the cinema was "Titanic".
She's not making the elaborate meals she used to make. It takes too much time and effort. Her appetite isn't up to the heavy food. Gone are the gulyash, paprikash, stews and pastries. She hasn't made a Dobos Torte or a Rum Torte in decades. She made the Slovenian nut roll, a POTICA, for Easter brunch. She always has a supply of her homemade butter cookies (some filled with jam), walnut horns, and a few slices of poppyseed-sour cream cake, in the freezer. Just in case a friend might drop by, unannounced.
This Mother's Day morning Mom took her bath, as usual, unassisted. Then she "went to Mass" by watching it on EWTN. Then she made herself her usual breakfast and waited to go out to lunch with us, to her favorite steakhouse. She still has all her teeth, in-a-way. Because she was a life-long member of SEIU, when her smile became less attractive, she got dental implants. SEIU retiree benefits included dental implants. SEIU has become more parsimonious with retiree benetis over the years. The retired union members don't have a vote, per their contract.
Mom has her radio tuned to OGNISJCE and Radio Llubljana. Her table is strewn with magazines from home, Slovenia. Ognisce, Ave Marija, and Zaklati Slovenia are all in Slovenian. I googled and not one of them is noted on-line. That's because those magazines are religious as well as cultural. Modern Slovenia does not recognize any religion what-so-ever. Still, mom has stacks of lovely, full-color, 66 page, copies of magazines from Slovenia, that she shares with her Slovenian friends. She's like a lending library, with people I don't know, coming up to me and asking me to convey their apologies for not returning Slovenian magazines. Ave Maria magazine has letters descending down the right edge, and a large photograph of a nice looking village church. Ave Maria magazine addresses Slovenian and global issues through the eyes of ordinary Christians of many denominations, not just Catholic.
A few weeks ago, some visitors from Slovenia who had been to Las Vegas, stopped at mom's house. They had a 6 hour lay-over at Chicago's O'Hare. She is minutes from O'Hare. When departing the visitors rebuked my mother for using "Z'Bogum" (go with God) instead of "Good-bye". The vistors from Slovenia were Americanized as well as professing to be atheists as is norm among young Slovenians. My mother smiled sweetly at them and said nothing. My mother has manners and did not want to make them feel uncomfortable.
I looked at mom's Slovenian magazines with all the lovely photos of village churches adorning the cover. I wonder if these churches will fail, with a few remaining as museums, relics of Slovenia's religious past. Young Slovenians do not attend church therefore the Church derives little or no income from modern Slovenians. People like my mom, ex-pats, give donations to their favorite churches in Slovenia.
Getting back to the stolen pears. Slovenians are Wends, Windisch in German. We are scattered across Europe and it's only when there is a Slovenia, that we have land that we can truly call our own.
On one trip to Slovenia, at that time the Republic of Slovenia in the country once-known as Yugslavia, I had an encouter with stolen pears.
I was "goofing" as my mother put it, with some Slovenian peers and we went to an orchard to climb trees and eat the fruit. It was a pear orchard. And we got caught. The farmer came to my grandmother's house and complained that we damaged his trees while climbing up the trees and eating his pears. He wanted money. My mother paid the farmer for his troubles. My mom paid the farmer for the stolen pears.
In private my mother told me that "Remember that we are visitors everywhere we go, even if we live there, own property there, we are always visitors".
In every country, even in Slovenia where my parent's have a condo in Murska Sobota and Austria where they have a small forest. "We are guests" was a mantra I always heard. Even in Chicago where my parents owned a 9-flat in Albany Park.
Slovenians, the Wends, are always guests, unless they have their own country.
Slovenia is up before the World Court again, the 20 year old divorce decree is up for review in July,2011. The European Union is looking at the divorce agreement between Slovenia and Yugoslavia. Slovenians argue that there is no more Yugoslavia, there is only Serbia. Let's hope the international courts agree.
My mother hopes that there will always be a Slovenia.
Mom's hometown, Murska Sobota, with her one of her favorite songs from her childhood, the ballad, Lili Marleen. http://www.youtube.com/...
Mom's favorite Magyarski/Hungarian ballad. http://www.youtube.com/...
The modern Slovenian National Anthem. http://www.youtube.com/...
Compare with the anthem of former-country of Yugoslavia. This is from the time my parents fled (with me a newborn) in tow, to Austria. The nation of Serbia has inherited the national anthem of Yugoslavia. Here's a not-so-funny rendering and the comments have been disabled. Serbs are not known for their tolerance. http://www.youtube.com/...
Hymns of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, where Slovenia being a minority culture, was largely ignored in favor of the master-race, the Serbians. http://www.youtube.com/...
This Mother's Day, the family went out to mom's favorite steakhouse, The Capitol Grill. She devoured her steak with zest. I had the grilled salmon filet on mixed greens with an oil & vinegar dressing. For dessert, I brought along a cake I made. A pear cake. Using an apple cake recipe where I replaced the apples with slices of carmelized pear.
Mom smiled. "Stolen pears?"
"No mom", I said, "PeaPod delivery".
Jes te llubim, zive za sto let!