SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

A good-natured, sparkling, soft-spoken, broad-minded and socially very engaged Bistrian, he always caught my attention, because he could tell me about any small thing or event with enthusiasm and passion. He was a master of stories. If they smelled of naphthalene, he would sprinkle rose water on them to add freshness. Although we were twenty years apart, we never ran out of common themes. We particularly liked to talk about the preservation of cultural heritage. The Municipality of Ilirska Bistrica awarded Vojko the title of Honorary Citizen.

I recently came across a photo in a family album of the municipal laureate with some of Prem's primary school pupils in the Dragotin Kettel Memorial Room in Prem, where Kettel was born. My memory took me back to the years when my children attended the Dragotin Kette Primary School, where Vojko taught. 

Every year on 19 January, the birthday of the poet from Prem, he gathered some children from Prem and the surrounding area, with whom he went to the former Prem Folk School, the poet's birthplace, at around two in the afternoon, where they paid tribute to the memory of this important Slovenian writer by reading Kette's works. 

The pupils always looked forward to the event, as the teacher rewarded them for their participation with a chocolate tasting of the poet's mysterious words, trust and hope. It melted in their mouths until the poet's next birthday, when a new, more mature taste took over their palates. 

To this day, everyone who took part in these mini-cultural vibrations still remembers in detail everything that happened in that mysterious cold room, full of the smell of dampness. But when the organiser of the event placed a bouquet of cut flowers on the windowsill by the piano of Philippe Kete, Dragotin's father, the scent of a solemn encounter between an enthusiastic, sensitive and mature lover and custodian of cultural heritage and the gentle, curious and trusting souls of children flooded the room. 

Vojko knew how to speak to, inspire and support playful youth. He allowed her to lean on his experience and helped her to grow towards an awareness of the importance of our heritage or culture. He enthusiastically devoted himself to our praise poet and gave him prominence wherever the opportunity presented itself. In this way, he inspired both the young and the slightly less young. I was among the latter.

At the beginning of each school year, at the primary school where I taught, he would send a postcard to the local mountaineering association, of which he was a long-time president, with an interesting motif of our municipality and wish the teachers and pupils a successful school year. When a commemorative stamp related to the famous Premci was issued and a commemorative stamp was produced, they kept each other company on a postcard sent to my address. 

As a tourist guide, when I search online or in written sources for information about past events in the municipality of Ilirska Bistrica, Vojko's name is usually mentioned among the authors of the articles, whether it is about the tourist attractions of Premi, partisanship in our towns, philately, numismatics, mountaineering, education or something else. An incredible legacy! I bow deeply to her with this note. 

Jerica Strle