PART OF THE MONOGRAPH “GOJKO JAKOVLEVSKI” BY SLAVE KATIN
His mother Rafka had long and straight black hair and very tender white skin. She had a stout figure, a tame, gracious but in sightful look that sometimes reflected her sad destiny. On occasion of some celebra tion, Saints day or wedding, she went to Debreshe, and sometimes to the neighbor ing picturesque village of Zubovce, one of the few villages in the area where only the Christian Orthodox population lived, which was well known by many beautiful and mod ern girls and boys.
Like his mother Rafka, his father Delche, who was born in Zubovce, was ten years old when his father passed away. Until 1960, the surname of his father’s ancestors was Manojloski, Manojlov, Manojlovic, but from that year they decided their surname to be Yakovleski.
The father of Goyko’s father Delche, that is his grandfather Petko, went to work in Istanbul, Constantinople, where he died in 1920, and Delche’s mother, grandmother Sir ma, whom they called “grandmother Bulja” when they were children, because she was always head-“covered”; she always wore a scarf on her head, and the children were scared of her.
Together with her mother-in law – great-grandmother Manojlica (whose name was Yonka), they went to Istanbul to f ind out what happened with grandfather Petko (the son of great-grandmother Mano jlica and husband of grandmother Sirma) on whom they had no information.
When they arrived in Istanbul, they learned that grandfather Petko had died in that city and was buried there. Grandmoth er Sirma who had three young children with grandfather Petko – Goyko’s father – Delche (10 years old at that time), his uncle or “papa Yorde” (11 years old at that time) and his aunt Vaska (12 years old at that time), aban doned them because while she was with her mother-in-law in Istanbul she met a man named Duke from the neighboring village of Volkovia and married him leaving her three children to live with her great-grandmother Manojlica.
Zubovce
Great-grandmother Manoilica was so sad that she was ready to jump into the Sea of Marmara and drown. But she thought that if she did it, no one would look after the three golden little grandchildren – Delche, Yorde, and Vaska, so she gave up that idea and in tention. But she swore that she would nev er allow her daughter-in-law (grandmother Sirma), who left her three children to remar ry, to see her children.
Goyko, on the other hand, had not heard this sad story for a long time and knew noth ing about it. But many years later, while liv ing with “papa Yorde” in Sofia, he told him that story, often saying, “She (his mother Sirma) is not a mother, she is a bitch.”
According to Goyko’s words, his mother Rafka grew up and she was frequently going to Zubovce. The girls from Zubovce used her as a courier and sent her to Delche, who was a handsome boy, a bachelor, to bring him a red apple, or a handkerchief, as a sign of af f inity and interest.
It happened very often, and his father has spotted his mother who was a pretty girl, stout, smart and coming from the remote village of Kunovo. Even though at weddings and festive days he met many girls dressed in beautiful costumes, with aprons, mittens, belts, various decorations and golden coins, his father often looked at her and eventual ly he started talking to her and asking her from where was she and why was she com ing to Zubovce.
Goyko’s mother told him that she was an orphan since she was very young, that she lost her father, and that her mother remar ried in Debreshe. His father Delche was sur prised that both of them shared a similar destiny. He showed great interest in the girl from the distant village. One of the beautiful girls from Zubovce said, “It is useless, none of us will get to Delche’s heart, Rafka will be the one.” So it happened.
To be continue
By SLAVE KATIN
