Years passed, difficult and bleak years. In 1996, after eight years, I approached Vrebac once again, wondering what I would find and imagining in my mind the places of Vrebac as I passed through them.<\/p>\n
I came to the school, run-down and desecrated by vandalism and time. A police car and two police officers stood beside it, watching me. I passed along Gradina and entered the yard.<\/p>\n
My face flushed when I saw my grandfather\u2019s dilapidated house, its windows broken and the door partly open, held in place by a wire. The yard had been swallowed by thick undergrowth through which not even a fox could have passed. The barn stood crooked and miserable, the hayloft open.<\/p>\n
A cramp seized me. I looked around once more and entered the house.<\/p>\n
Things were scattered across the floor, cupboards stood open and their contents had been thrown out, mattresses were ripped apart, furniture overturned. I found my grandfather\u2019s and grandmother\u2019s photograph intact. I took it, along with another frame filled with photographs, and went outside.<\/p>\n
There was the police.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour documents, please. Who are you, and what are you doing here?\u201d<\/p>\n
I managed to keep myself composed, and that was the only good thing about it.<\/p>\n
About ten years later, in 2008, my brother and I began the restoration.<\/p>\n
I return to Vrebac gladly and often, and I would like you, my grandchildren, to continue doing so. I would like you to find in Vrebac a sense of belonging and closeness, peace and relaxation, and the joy of spending time together as brothers.<\/p>\n
Remember Vrebac and live with it. And when life becomes most difficult, go there to find new strength and peace of mind. But do not forget Mogori\u0107 either. Do not forget: our roots are there; that is where you belong.<\/p>\n
From the hillock before the bridge over Tunjevac, across Rude\u017e to the Vrebac Path and Tavani, to the mountain meadows of Velika Lisina; then descending across \u010cardak, from where there is a sweeping view of the Krbava and Lika fields, to the Vrebac Donkeys above Stra\u017ebenica; down to the deep and powerful Graovac Cave; then to Radlovac below Zavodje, along the Radlovac Bridge and upstream beside the Jadova all the way to Seli\u0161te; then across Kora\u0107\u2019s Bridge to Pavlovac Vreba\u010dki, to \u0106elemije; and along the Jadova, across Ra\u0161novac, all the way to Barlete…<\/p>\n
And the Jadova, which both mourns and divides; Tunjeva\u010dka Cave and Raki\u0107a Cave; Stra\u017ebenica and the School; the Community Hall and the wells; Gradina with its monument, the grave of Prota Bogdanovi\u0107, and the cross as a memorial to the soul of Vrebac\u2014all of this is Vrebac.<\/p>\n
And most precious of all are the people who love it and who return to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u017deljko Naran\u010di\u0107<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"atribut":[30],"class_list":["post-5287","artikl","type-artikl","status-publish","hentry","atribut-poems"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n