SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

The woman in front of me seemed like a treasure trove of stories, so I asked her, »Do you remember anything else interesting from your youth?«

»Yes. I remember how I trusted my mother. I never argued with her. I always trusted her and believed that she was giving me the right advice. My mother was very wise and modest. She loved to read and talk to us children,« said Mrs Angelca.

»Oh, my. Then you were a special child? Nowadays, children hardly trust their parents anymore. There are very few who still do,« I smiled.

»No, I was just a normal kid; like everyone else. But we were family and we trusted each other«, she laughed, before telling us: »I will never forget this event. Sometimes we children stayed at home during the holidays. We didn't go to the seaside. Those who lived on the farm worked on it. We didn't have one, so my mother got me a job on the railway.«

I didn't understand, so she went on to say, »Every year during the holidays, they would look for children to clear the weeds along the track with picks and hoes. We were divided into groups and each group was given an area to clean that day.«

»Interesting. It's the first time I've heard of children doing this kind of work,« I marvelled.

»And then one day,« she said, smiling, »I found some money that had fallen off the train. I found it. I was lucky, because it was worth a lot of money.«

»Really? Do you remember what you did with it?«

»What? It's what my mother taught me; we have to help each other and share. We shared the money with the girls in my group and we were all very happy.«

She was silent for a moment, then continued, »I keep telling you how lucky I am to be able to share what I have with someone. I am very lucky; maybe even too lucky.«

I listened, watched, thought and said, »They say that everyone has it as much as he is willing to do for it.« Then I asked her, »Do you remember how old you were then?«

»Yes, for about fifteen years. I had just finished primary school then.«

»Amazing! If that were the case today, most of us would hide our money and use it to buy an expensive mobile phone.«

»Or not. Because there are many warm-hearted, good young people today. And rightly so,« nodded the kind lady.

Darinka Kobal, 10. 2. 2026