Zivana Maksimovic

Zivana Maksimovic

I believe that a hero is someone whose characteristics and acts make our lives better. A hero should be someone for whom you go to sleep happily and in the morning you wake up cheered. A hero is someone that guides, helps and supports you through your life without selfishness. A hero is someone for whom you are the centre of his life. They forget their life opportunities, chances to change the way they live, just to make you happy. A hero must be unselfish, generous, emotionally strong and responsible. Heroes don't ask you to repay their acts.

 A hero for me is my grandmother. Her name is Zivana Maksimovic. She was born on a beautiful sunny day on 25th of March in Bosnia. She married, of course, my grandfather. She was eighteen when she came to Slovenia. She had a hard life. She was exhausted by finding a job, living with people that she was surrounded by. All the while she was also fighting for her better health. Whatever she has today has been fought for.

Then I came. My mother went to Ljubljana (the capital of Slovenia) and my father went far away, to the Netherlands. They 'left' me at my grandmother's. Eventually granny realized that I'm going to stay with her forever. She could say to my mother: 'Take her with you. She's your daughter, not mine!' But she didn't. She swallowed the pain and all the pride she had and took me into her warm home. She has cared for me as I was a drop of water on her palm, like I was the only thing worth living for. She couldn't go to Paris, Greece and to her home in Bosnia, because she had me. She doesn't want me to feel like I'm a burden to her. She keeps saying to me that I'm the most beautiful and precious thing in her life. She had billions of chances to go away from Slovenia, but she didn't. She stayed with me - again and again.

She was the one who hugged me when I wanted to. She held my hand and cheered me up when I was down, suffering and depressed. When she sees me suffer, she suffers three times more. She tries to hide it, but I can see what's happening to her.

She carries all the bad things that have happened to her in her heart and doesn't show them only to make my life better, happier and easier. If someone asked her to die instead of me, she would do it, no matter how much fear she might have in her heart. She would let herself be tormented just to save me. She is my guardian angel - my true, brave hero.

Aleksandra Cesnovar, primary school Narodnega heroja Rajka Hrastnik, Dol pri Hrastniku, Slovenia, MHM2 (teacher Jana Suligoj)