STOIA WAS MOTHER TO ALL AEGEAN CHILDREN

STOIA WAS MOTHER TO ALL AEGEAN CHILDREN

Stoia Jankovska was one of the many women to whom mothers gave their sons and daughters to look after

This is how Stoia Jankovska, a “mother” designated to look after the refugee children in the children’s homes in Bela Tsrkva, Vojvodina, described her experience. “It felt like I had some kind of wound inside of me that hurt all the time from remembering how mothers and children cried during their separation. It hurts when I think of the mothers hugging their children and the streets being empty of the children’s joy and laughter. I feel like I have developed a clock inside me that awakens my old memories every time I think of the children I looked after during those dark times…” Stoia Jankovska or “mother Stoia” as she was known to the children, was a well recognized name in the children’s homes. She spent 20 years looking after the children in the children’s homes. Now, 60 years later, she still has a hard time speaking about her drama. While talking to us she tried to hide her tears but they kept coming nonstop. We felt like we had turned on the old clock inside of her and made her memories pour out.

According to Jankovska, even though people were tired of fighting for their freedom, they all believed in their struggle. That is why the majority of mothers agreed to separate themselves from their children. They were certain that soon they would win the war and have their children back. This is what Jankovska said, “When we arrived at the border crossing, Lazo Angelovski, a teacher who was escorting us, said that we would be back in three months and the children would be holding red flags in their hands. We all believed him. We waited and waited but we never came back. I waited 55 years before I was allowed to visit my birthplace. I finally went back and took my brother with me…”

Jankovska, or “mother” Stoia, was with the children the entire time from the time the first children’s homes opened in Bela Tsrkva, Vojvodina until they closed. After most children were claimed by

their parents, forty still remained in the homes. They probably had lost their parents in the war. These children were transferred to the children’s home “11 October” in Skopje. Jankovska stayed with them until they finished their secondary education. After that she went to work as a teacher.

According to Jankovska, the children had a good life in the children’s homes and were well educated. This is what she said, “These were children who came from the villages, children of farmers, brick-layers and tailors. They were dressed in village clothes and were tired from their long trip. Anyone who saw the shape they were in would be in tears. They were on a train for the first time. They saw bathrooms in the children’s homes for the first time. And even though they were without their parents they were thoughtful and well disciplined. Most graduated from university, some with PhDs…”

During the interview Jankovska, enthusiastically and with great love, showed us many pictures of the children taken on the day they arrived in the children’s homes. She had something interesting to say about every child. Also she had not forgotten their names. There were also Greek children among of them. It did not make any difference to her if they were Macedonian or Greek. This is what she said, “For us they were all the same. We were their ‘mothers’ and they were all our children. When the last group of children left the children’s home, the director gave me the pictures and told me to take them with me to Macedonia and keep them as a record of our stay in Bela Tsrkva. I took them and then gave some to the children during subsequent visits with them. The rest I kept with me. I hope to give them to them when I see them. Unfortunately I don’t know where they are. I hope I will see them again before I die…”

Jankovska did a good job with the refugee children and for that she was recognized by the Yugoslav authorities and the Red Cross. But, according to her, the best acknowledgement for her was the respect and the appreciation she received from the children. This is what she said, “I was waiting for a bus one day when a young man, whom I didn’t recognize, asked me if I was ‘mother’ Stoia. I said ‘yes’ and asked him if I knew him. He said, ‘My name is Laze Shopov.’ When I heard that name I gave him a hug. He then asked me where I lived.

I told him that I had been given a small apartment here in the city. He said, ‘You should have been given a villa for the eight years you substituted as our ‘mother’, working for free...”

Stoia Jankovska, now 80 years old, continued, “One day I ran into Kire Sekulov, a former child refugee under my care. He asked me if I would go to his office and spend fifteen minutes with him. I said yes. When we got there he gathered his colleagues and introduced me to them. In his introduction he called me ‘his mother Teresa’. I was so touched by that I started crying. Those words meant a lot to me, more than anything in the world…”

Jankovska was a great “mother” and loved all the children. She said she literally lived for them and they extended the length of her life. This is what she said, “Those who are here often come and visit me and those who went oversees frequently write me letters. Sometimes I don’t write them back. It’s hard for me. I prefer to have them close and visit with them in person… while I’m still alive. But it wasn’t like that before. Now destiny took us apart and we have to write letters to each other with tears in our eyes…” This is what Tomka Pandova, a child refugee from the village Trsie, said to her relatives, “Now that I have moved to distant Australia, my greatest wish is to be buried with the letters Stoia wrote me and the pictures she gave me…”

Every refugee child, even today, calls Jankovska “Mother Stoia”. She said she feels sorry for them because they were sacrificed not only during the Greek Civil War but also during the Inform Bureau when Tito was feuding with Stalin, and during the Cold War. Jankovska was in Romania during the Inform Bureau period taking teaching courses with thirty other “mothers”. The teacher who lectured them was a Greek. This is what Jankovska said, “While lecturing us on how to teach, our Greek lecturer said that we were not going back to Yugoslavia, to Bela Tsrkva, and neither would the children we were teaching. I told him we were not staying here. We would walk back if we had to and we would take our children with us. We promised their mothers that we would look after them and that is exactly what we were going to do. We were not going to abandon our children. Sometime later, one night, we went back to Bela Tsrkva. Unfortunately we lost eleven year old Antigoni Hasu, a

Vlach girl from Psoderi. We didn’t know where she was. One year later the teachers in Czechoslovakia called us and told us that she was there…”

Jankovska worked eight years as a teacher. She got married in 1956, but before she got married she told her fiancé he had to come and live with her in the children’s home. She told him she could not leave the children alone. She should be there to take care of them and be with them when they woke up in the morning. The authorities gave them a room in the children’s home and they stayed there until the children’s home was closed.

In late 1950 Jankovska visited her birthplace Rudari, where she found three of her students from Bela Tsrkva. They, along with about 500 other children, had come back to Greece earlier in 1950. The names of the three were Mihail, Aristotel and Ianko. By then Mihail and Aristotel were married and had children of their own. Unfortunately Ianko had died. Jankovska visited his grave and cried for a long time. This is what she said, “It was upsetting, I even cried when I saw Mihail and Aristotel. It was hard but nice to see them again, to see the people you love, after so many years. They invited me and all the others that were with me to stay in their homes. Of the 500 children that came back in 1950, around 450 were Macedonians who had living relatives in Greece…”

According to Jankovska, only five or six children from Bela Tsrkva were mobilized by the Democratic Army of Greece (DAG) to fight in the inhumane Greek Civil War. This is what Jankovska said, “Our children were mobilized in the Democratic Army of Greece to fight in that inhumane war. Unbeknownst to us, Georgiadis, a Greek, came and mobilized the older children. He took them to Bulkesh, Voivodina a neighborhood run by Greek refugees. We thought he had taken them to put them to work in Bulkesh and then bring them back, but we were wrong. Three of the children were killed. I only remember one of them, his name was Stefche. I don’t remember the names of the others…”

Jankovska was only 20 years old when she left her village Rudari in 1948 and took the road of no return. Her father and oldest brother Vasil stayed behind to fight in the war. Her mother was also left

behind. Her two younger brothers, Risto and Goche, went with her to Bela Tsrkva. Her sister Aleksandra was also evacuated but with a different group of refugee children. She ended up in a children’s home in Romania. After DAG was defeated, her parents together with her youngest brother Nikola fled the war and ended up in Poland. Soon after arriving in Poland her father died. He had been seriously injured during the final battles. He was buried in Poland. Her oldest brother Vasil was wounded four times. After DAG was defeated Vasil fled to Albania and from there was sent to Tashkent. He later brought his mother, brother and sister from Poland to Tashkent. It was not until the 60’s that the family finally got together in Macedonia.