arts & cultural experiences
When I heard word of Vaska’s death, I was on vacation in Ohrid and by the time I returned home, By Hana Truscott, MAK16 Vaska had long been buried. Funeral rituals happen quickly here, within a day or two of the death. I’ve been to two funerals, one in Kratovo and one in Novaci earlier this spring, and found each to be an intimate ordeal. It is customary for friends and family to pay respects to the deceased by making a home visit, where the body (both times in my experience) was laying restfully, albeit a bit eerily, on the living room couch, surrounded by seated family members mourning in solid black attire. Many women (and perhaps men too) continue to wear all black for Well, I’m afraid it was my neighbor Vaska – wife of months or even years following the death of a loved Tiro – who passed on from this life first. And Tiro’s one. I remember entering the living room each time, still alive and kicking nearly a year after his stroke, the air thick with the smell of bodies and candles, despite being given a few weeks or months to live. carrying with me chocolates and money, an offerVaska’s death and preceding sudden decline in ing which I diligently placed in the designated areas health came as a shock to us all. It was as if she was surrounding the body. After lighting a candle on the living for her beloved, Tiro, and once his health de- altar set up specifically for the occasion, I expressed teriorated following his stroke last April, she stopped my condolences to each of the seated mourners clinging to life and let go. Within a few weeks of with a specific Macedonian phrase (that I had to reTiro’s stroke, Vaska fell ill and ended up in the hospi- peat over and over again in my head so I wouldn’t tal. Doctors found an array of suppressed ailments forget). After a few hours of visitors, many of whom – from high cholesterol and blood pressure to full-on waited outside the house, the time came to proceed diabetes. With all these layers of illness building up with the body (now moved into an open casket) to within her over the years, I can’t help but wonder the graveyard. In Kratovo, this entailed pall bearers what it was that kept those illnesses at bay – was it carrying both the casket and a number of religious having something to love or something to hope for? items, followed by a trail of family and friends, winding our way through the narrow cobble-stone streets I’ve heard that emotional well-being and mental of Kratovo on foot, before finally walking up the hilly health can greatly affect physical health, and I’d like highway out of town to the graveyard several kilometo think that Vaska and Tiro lived for each other. I’m ters above the town. Once at the graveyard, mournawed by stories of aged couples who have been ers gathered round the grave as the Orthodox priest married well into their years, and then pass on with- led a short service, followed by each of us throwin a few days or weeks of each other. There was ing a handful of dirt onto the lowered casket before also a lot of “something to do” here for Vaska and heading back to the funeral luncheon. Obituaries Tiro. You see, life in rural Macedonia can be very take the form of blue and white certificates that are demanding, requiring hard labor and harsh living posted around town. I came across Vaska’s obituary conditions. Vaska lived well into her certificate shortly after returning from seventies in a two-room house, with an Ohrid, while walking past the Orthodox outside kitchen and outhouse. When Church down the street from my house. you share your home with nature, each So now I am neighbor-less. Tiro has season has its own de ����̸�]����$�������������ٕ����Ё���ѡ��ȁ���ѱ�����͔�����Ё��ЁY�ͭ������Q�ɼ����Ёݥ�ѕȰ�ѡ�䁹��ЁѼ������Ѽ�������������屔����ͥ���ݕɔ����ѱ�����ɽչ�����ͥ����������������ѡ�����ɉ䁍��䁽�� �ѽ���
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