SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

But in those days, this pearl-like village was completely cut off from the world. Wherever one wanted to go, one had to walk; even to the church for Mass. Since it was an hour and a half walk, the mother gave each child a piece of bread.

"To make the journey easier," she told us. 

"Everyone put a piece of bread in their pocket and went on their way. One Sunday, as we were coming back from church, each of us took a piece. He bit into it with great relish. No one noticed that I was not eating, but kept looking at the woman who was walking slowly and wearily in front of us. When we caught up with her, I walked over to her and gave her my piece of bread. She stopped and looked at me gratefully. The sparkle in her eyes was so sincere that the memory of it still warms my heart."

Mrs Malči told me this story, so I asked her:

"Did you know her?" 

"I didn't!"

"Were you always generous as a child? Did you know how to share with each other as a child?"

"Oh, of course we shared. Everything, because there wasn't an overabundance in the house. It seemed perfectly normal that we would show off our clothes one after the other. It often happened that the last one, the smallest, got a shirt as washed and loose as the little Videk in the fairy tale."

I asked again, "Did you also share food?"

"We did, treats, although most of the time it was my mother who gave them to us. She was fair and just."

"What about when you gave your piece of bread to a poor woman? Did one of your brothers or sisters break off a piece of yours?" I wondered.

"Oh, no! That's when I was told off by my mother," she said.

"Do you remember what your mother said? Did she scold you?"

"She said that this piece of bread was for me, to make it easier to walk and get over the long journey. I replied that the woman looked even poorer, even more tired than I was. She seemed to me to be very hungry." 

"How old were you then?"

"About 10 years, no more," Malči recalled.

"How was the following Sunday? Did you go to Mass again?"

"Oh, of course we went, each with our own piece of bread. And it was just like last Sunday," she replied with a laugh.

"Have you given her your piece of bread again?"

Mrs Malči nodded and said that she had caught up with her, and then they walked together. At home, the children accused her of giving her bread to a stranger.

"What did your mother say?"

"Nothing! She looked at me and wanted to say something, but I beat her to it. I remembered how she had taken in a beggar a few months ago, so I said to her: 'Don't scold me, because you also helped a man who was hungry and ragged.'"

 "And then?"

"Then my mother hugged me without saying a word."

"How was the following Sunday?" I wondered.

"The following Sunday, my mother gave me two pieces of bread, saying: 'For you and for the old woman'.That's how I learned goodness from her, and that's how I taught my children. This kindness made me happy and I never regretted it."

Darinka Kobal, 19. 2.2025