Family Ties

Funny old thing is life – I was about to leave for rowing this morning and my local mobile rang (I have two) – I answered - it was a New Zealand voice, and in my confusion I thought that he said ‘Mark Jacobs’(molim?) but it was my cousin from New Zealand, Mark Jakic, and they had arrived in Tucepi yesterday! And I had been wondering what I was going to do today! (I feel that I am just marking time this week until my daughter arrives here (two more sleeps!)).

So I introduced them to Plava Kava, my local café, and then we drove to old Tucepi – Mark and Kay wanted to show me their family land up there, and I wanted to show them ours…. (their’s was a palace compared to ours). Kay has a small photo album that she carries with her – it has photos of their house two years ago (which showed that someone has removed one wall and made better use of the stones elsewhere but ‘sto raditi’?).

As we were leaving, a new Mercedes drove past, the driver with eyes so crossed that I mentioned it… and out came the photos – and there was a younger version of the same eyes! A photo taken by someone else, a family group that Mark and Kay had not yet had the privilege to meet – so back we went. Difficult to say ‘hey this crossed-eyed guy, is this you in better days?’ Kay showed him the photo and with skills which should award us a post as diplomats, I said “is this your mother?” pointing to the older woman in the photo. And it was, and so we had to come inside and drink his wine (of course).

We extracted ourselves after discussions (no English) about his family, his age, his children, and wandered up to the other side of the village. Seriously, this selo is one of my favourite places in the world – but you will have to wait until I go there with Danica and Samuel before you get the full picture, but in the mean time, here is me, standing in front of what was our grandfather’s house.

Ok, slightly rustic, a bit overgrown, but as the real estate agents would say ‘needing TLC, a real gem, heaps of potential’!
We ate a mixed grill for three (me the vegetarian) that would have fed an army, drank some rakija, and then went to meet Mark’s cousin Sonja Tomas in Tucepi. We finally got back to Makarska at 6, sat in the café with the local men talking to my friend Lara and got back to my apartment at 8. A long fulfilling day, full of family, missing details and Croatian charm.
Oh, and in the café Mark noticed what I have been raving about – the grandfather’s with their grandchildren – the gentleness and joy that these grandparents take in the little ones. They are surely the centre of their universe.