SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

After only a few kilometres of driving, the bus was filled with joyful squealing and singing.

»Shment! Who else can squeak these days?« I asked my husband.

»Oh, it's Angelca,« he replied.

I didn't know, because I didn't know Mrs Angelce before. I met her that day; a cheerful, always smiling and sociable lady. She loved to sing and we all sang with her almost the whole way. We did not see each other for a long time after that trip, as we lived at our separate ends of Lita.

After a few years, we met in church. After the service, she came up to me and asked. I'm taking you home so you don't have to go up the hill.»

And I went. We chatted a bit during the ride, and got off at the cemetery. She went to her husband's grave and I went home. So we met for quite a few years and chatted every now and then. She came to us a couple of times for coffee and dessert, because she loved to eat. Every now and then she would invite my husband and me home and she would make us coffee. There was always a surprise waiting for me at her place. She loved to give something. Anything. If she had nothing else, she gave beautiful coffee cups; the old ones, Retrieved from. 

»I don't need them anymore!« she said.

Another time she gave me a big oriental vase or something. She always said, »I don't need this anymore, but I'm very happy if I can make you happy.«

But Angelca, like everyone else, was getting older every year. After a knee operation, she found it difficult to walk and slowly she didn't like to cook anymore. At first, they brought her lunches from a nearby inn, but then one day, all smiles, she told me, »I'm going home. I won't be alone there anymore and I won't have to cook.«

She has indeed moved into her new home. It's also true that joy was still with her. She is happy with everything. She is also happy because she can have a little chat with everyone. Above all, she likes the fact that the retirement home is surrounded by woods, so she can go for walks. 

When my husband and I visited her, she told us with a twinkle in her eye: »I don't bake now and I don't have any fruit from my garden, but I can order and pay for coffee for those who don't have it. This makes the day of those who don't have money a little brighter. It makes them happy and it makes me happy. For those who are sad and do not drink coffee, I can give a smile or a song. If that doesn't help, I shriek along with it. It costs me nothing, but it makes us all infinitely happier. It's so nice to be able to brighten their day and my own.«

I looked at it and thought. Many years ago, I wrote a New Year's greeting to Manka Kosir. She called me afterwards and told me that it was the most beautiful card she had ever received. May it brighten your day too, dear readers:

You have to be happy,

that you can make someone happy.

Someone needs to be made happy,

to stay happy.

Darinka Kobal, 19. 1. 2026