Home Truths: Zvezdana

Name Zvezdana

Age 86

 Lives in Shepparton

 Please finish this sentence: ‘Home is … where my family is close by.’

 Describe your childhood home 

 I was born in Maribor in Slovenia. Maribor is a very nice city – there are a lot of the old parts still left. The street I lived in was about 800 years old and the house was probably about the same; it’s one of the oldest streets in middle Europe. There were shops on the bottom and then four or five flats on the first floor. We were never lonely because there were other kids there. We were very lucky as there was a big courtyard with two enormous horse chestnut trees; most people didn’t have anything like that, so we played in there. It was a nice place to grow up. We were probably poor but nobody had the feeling that we were poor as we were all in the same boat – we didn’t know any rich people so we didn’t know any different! We had a bath once a month in the laundry downstairs which everyone used. There was a big kettle down there where you warmed up the water for the bath but also the laundry.

 Most of the people in our area were workers – my father was always working, he was a butcher. But we were never hungry – there was always food, even in the wartime, we had a lot of relations on farms so they gave us eggs and fresh meat.

 Our flat in Maribor was on the main thoroughfare so we were right in the middle of town. It was also the main road into Austria. I saw all the dictators from my window! Hitler was in an open car – he didn’t seem to be worried about anyone wanting to shoot him. I also saw Tito – he was also driving into Austria.

In the wartime part of our courtyard was taken over by the army – there were lots of munitions there. In the last day of the war when the partisans were coming in there was a strange German officer who wanted to blow the whole place up. But someone persuaded him not to – that we would take everything down to the river and dump it. So there was a lot of horse-drawn wagons and we all (including the kids) loaded the ammunition and ran it down to the river. Everyone helped, as it wouldn’t have been only our house that blew up. There were all kinds of munitions – bombs, guns, and grenades – but it was just an ordinary house that we all lived in.

We had a great time in that house. I stayed there even after we were married as there were no flats at that time. We didn’t have a flat until we moved to Australia – that was the first flat we had by ourselves as husband and wife. At that time my daughter was six years old.

 Did you ever have to make a home away from home?

When we came to Australia in 1960 we had to stay at Bonegilla, the migrant camp. We came to Melbourne first by plane and then they put us on the train to Bonegilla … I remember we had to swap trains one or two times. I didn’t like it much. We had to stay in little huts – there was one long line, it must have been divided up in compartments. But there was nothing for me to cook – instead, there was a big dining room where they provided the meals, as there was a lot of people there at time and they wanted lots more migrants.

 At Bonegilla my daughter Krista had to start school even though she was only six years old – in Slovenia we started school at seven. We came to the camp with a family from Austria who had two children; none of us could understand English and the kids especially didn’t like it. So on the first day Krista decided to leave school and come back home, bringing the other two with her. Apparently they had to greet the Queen or something in the morning – they really didn’t like it!!

I remember being in an English class – I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was an enormous spider climbing up the wall! I can’t remember – I think I screamed. We only had daddy long-legs in Slovenia. I thought it would kill me! The teacher cupped it in her hand and said it was only to catch flies. I didn’t believe her.

My husband Branko was very well educated – he was an engineer. We left Slovenia because Branko was ambitious, but he wasn’t in the Communist Party and he knew that if he wasn’t in the party he wouldn’t go up the ladder. And I just followed the leader!  We didn’t stay in Bonegilla too long though as Branko got a job on the Hume Weir as a draftsman. Soon, however, he was working in Melbourne as a civil engineer and that was much better.

 Where’s home for you? 

I came to Shepparton because I couldn’t live on my hill (in Warburton in Victoria’s Yarra Valley) anymore after my husband died. The best thing about my house is the swimming pool in Shepparton. At the moment it’s all closed but usually I do water aerobics a couple of times a week and swim laps. It’s the best thing about Shepparton, except for having my family nearby. The place is nice, the garden … well… I wish the gardener would weed a bit more but he doesn’t! If I want the weeds pulled out I have to do it myself. The house is great. If I think how we started out – we didn’t have a flat or anything – now I have three bedrooms by myself! Three bedrooms, two living rooms … and all for one person.

 What does home mean to you? 

 I’m secure – even if I’m by myself I’m never worried or anything. And it’s comfortable.

 Do you have any ‘home truths’ for people dealing with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic?  

Look, you shouldn’t worry too much. If you want, turn the television on or take a book and read to get your mind off it. If you watch the news or listen to the radio, there’s so much of that virus everywhere – much better to take a nice book and read! You’ll feel much better for it. Or go out in the garden, I’m not a gardener but you’ll feel better if you do that.

Illustration by Michelle Pereira Interview Maria O’Dwyer