This could well be among the more tragic stories among the folks I knew. She was the prettiest in her grade. There's a theory that the greater distance between the eyes is prettier than a small one, and hers was somewhere close to the upper border, and with those big upper cheeks, she did catch the eye. Just about anyone who had fifteen minutes of time would try his luck with her. Even I had escorted her home once*, to somewhere on Groš. Vanji once tried his best for a few minutes.
For some reason she picked one guy who was a bum, but still somehow made it into gimnazija. He used to flout his image of a rough and tough bad frajer, coming to school on his 50cc moped as if it was a 250cc BMW, cutting the corner behind vodotoranj.
She eventually married the guy. Graduated some pedagogy and became a teacher. They had a son, and eventually divorced. I don't think I ever saw him again after about 1972. when he should have graduated.
Then there was a long pause, until I once saw her at the supermarket on ruža. She recognized me at once, despite the beard, hair and age - this was in the nineties, roughly. She gained some mass, still looking quite pretty, but there was some wild look in her eyes, weird tics on her face, her look was jumping left and right, couldn't keep it in one place for more than a couple of seconds, and how she talked, whoa, that sounded distressed, distracted, disconnected and at times disjointed.
Her son was Go's boyfriend soon thereafter, probably around 1997 or thereabouts, but that didn't last, she ditched him (like she did with most of the guys).
Between that and 2010 I first heard that she had some psychiatric diagnose, and then that she died. Can't pin down the dates.
Her father was a judge in some lower court, (... 67 words...).
After 2010, her Dražen would appear here whenever Go was staying longer. He graduated nothing, worked nowhere, lived on his grandmother's retirement and was just as confused as she sounded back then. But he was calm and at least tried to be coherent.
We would mention their case from time to time when we'd sit over a drink in the evenings, and few more details would reappear from time to time.
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* this is how I remembered it, before I brought the diaries in; then I rediscovered the few weeks of serious persuasion, august-september 1972.
1-VI-2021 - 15-IV-2026