While we prepare for the great holiday of Easter today in peace, 27 years ago it was not so. NATO bombs were falling over Serbia, so instead of the holiday spirit, fear reigned among the people, because the enemy did not rest even during those holy days. However, there are women for whom those April days in 1999 were particularly difficult, as they were preparing for childbirth while explosions echoed all around. One of them was Dušica Nikolić from Čačak.
On this day, on the eve of Easter itself, which was on April 11th that year, Dušica had a scheduled C-section with her fourth child and third son. Although one of the most beautiful moments, it was then colored by fear and anxiety.
-On Good Friday 1999, the NATO aggressors bombed multiple locations. While they were preparing me for the C-section, they reported that they would also bomb the Čačak hospital. In the meantime, they delivered my baby via C-section. I had my fourth child, my youngest son, who turns 27 today. Instead of hitting the hospital, as they had announced, they targeted Čačak’s Sloboda factory. We, as new mothers who had undergone C-sections, were moved from room to room; they were looking for shelters and safer places for both us and the babies, Dušica recalls for RINA.
She adds that in those days, everyone employed at the Čačak hospital was in fear, as were the patients. But, as she says, thanks to the nurses and doctors, the mothers were protected, both health-wise and from the fear of the bombing itself.
-There was great fear in me. I was happy because I had my fourth child, but I also felt enormous fear as a mother because my three other children stayed at home. You don’t know if you will return from the hospital alive and well, and you don’t know if you will find your children at home, because the bombing of Sloboda happened on multiple occasions. I left the hospital on the sixth day, April 16th. When I took the child for the first check-up at the Health Center in Čačak, they reported in the meantime that they were bombing the bridge on the Morava, over which we had to return home. So those were truly very difficult days, which I still remember with unease today, said Dušica.
However, today 27 years later, Easter in the Nikolić family is prepared with much peace and love. During nearly three decades, the family has increased manifold.
-My baby born in the war is now already a married man and has his own family. The other children as well, so the house is full of grandchildren and full of joy. The eggs are dyed today; I dyed some, my daughters-in-law dyed some, so we will all celebrate Easter together in the village. There is no greater happiness than when there is peace in the country, and everyone who has gone through those difficult moments knows that. The most important thing is that we are healthy and at peace; everything else comes and goes, this brave woman concludes.
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Source: RINA, Photo: RINA