{"id":197417,"date":"2026-01-06T16:17:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=197417"},"modified":"2026-01-06T16:20:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:20:37","slug":"touching-story-from-krusevac-three-sisters-lost-their-mother-with-whom-they-sold-christmas-eve-branches-every-year-gathered-strength-and-continued-the-tradition-photo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/touching-story-from-krusevac-three-sisters-lost-their-mother-with-whom-they-sold-christmas-eve-branches-every-year-gathered-strength-and-continued-the-tradition-photo\/","title":{"rendered":"TOUCHING STORY FROM KRU\u0160EVAC: Three sisters lost their mother with whom they sold Christmas Eve branches every year, gathered strength and continued the tradition! (PHOTO)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Across Serbia, in anticipation of the great holiday of Christmas, Christmas Eve branches (badnjaci) are being sold. However, a special and touching story comes to us from Kru\u0161evac, where near the Jovan Jovanovi\u0107 Zmaj Elementary School, this holy wood is being sold by Teodora, Anastasija, and Jelica Milenkovi\u0107. These three biological sisters sold badnjaci in previous years as well, but now everything is different. In December, they lost their mother, but since they had performed this work with her in previous years, they decided to find the strength and do it for her love on the eve of this Christmas as well.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eI have been doing this since I was little. My mother taught me. I sell badnjaci because she also loved for us to do it and because I know she would want me to continue. It’s not strenuous. It is a bit harder while everything is being gathered, but it’s not difficult. The work goes easily. We sold on January 5th, we will sell throughout Christmas Eve, and we will celebrate Christmas within the family,\u201c Teodora told RINA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Great support and the biggest pillar for the hardworking sisters is their father Ljuba, who, after the sudden death of his wife, has the task of leading these three girls onto the right path. A very difficult period is behind them. In May, their house burned down, and at the end of the year, they were left without a mother and wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eThat night I managed to pull my wife and children out of the flames, alive and well. This time, unfortunately, I did not succeed. I tried everything, heart massage, artificial respiration, until the ambulance arrived. I tried to keep her alive, but I didn’t succeed. I lost my wife. The cause was a heart attack. She was 49 years old. Those are the hardest years, when a mother is most needed by the children,\u201c says Ljuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teodora is 18, Anastasija is 16, and Jelica is 12 years old. The eldest daughter is a Saint Sava student, winner of the Saint Sava award as the best pupil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201eMy children are everything to me. Both my wife and I tried to lead them onto the right path. They are taught to share even the last crust of bread, to be good people. We did the selling of badnjaci before. My wife loved doing that. She taught the children. The children insisted that we go out this year as well, to mark the tradition and respect what their mother loved. To continue regardless of everything that happened,\u201c says this devoted father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He adds that in these moments he is maximally dedicated to the children, because the loss they all experienced is enormous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eWe organize ourselves as best we can. The eldest daughter looks after the youngest for a few hours a day. We have to manage. I have trust in the children. They are taught all the household chores. They do everything themselves. The middle daughter kneads pies, she makes phenomenal pies. She taught herself to make cakes, too. Now we have to organize ourselves a bit differently. What their mother used to do, and I know how, I must now take over,\u201c says Ljuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORE TOPICS:<\/mark><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

IN THE WORDS OF A YOUNG GIRL: Here is what Christmas Eve looked like in Serbia in 1909!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SERBIA CELEBRATES CHRISTMAS EVE: A great holiday of love and reconciliation!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201eMY GRANDMOTHER DIED IN THE WAR, THEY HID IT FROM ME\u201c: Emotional confession of Zlatan Ibrahimovi\u0107 about the poverty and childhood that shaped him!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT: Thirty-three years marked since the brutal Christmas massacre of Serbs in Kravice!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE OF PATRIARCH PORFIRIJE: \u201eOvercome divisions, embrace and extend a hand to one another\u201c (VIDEO)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source<\/strong>: <\/strong>RINA, Photo:<\/strong> RINA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across Serbia, in anticipation of the great holiday of Christmas, Christmas Eve branches (badnjaci) are being sold. However, a special and touching story comes to us from Kru\u0161evac, where near the Jovan Jovanovi\u0107 Zmaj Elementary School, this holy wood is being sold by Teodora, Anastasija, and Jelica Milenkovi\u0107. These three biological sisters sold badnjaci in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":197424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[10596,2830,10597,6203,10598,113,10599],"class_list":["post-197417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-serbia","tag-badnjal","tag-bozic","tag-gubitak-majke","tag-krusevac","tag-sestre-milenkovic","tag-srbija","tag-uspomena","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197417"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197466,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197417\/revisions\/197466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}