Smiljka Bajcetic, an 85 year-old woman, has lived alone in Pleshinë village in Ferizaj since 1996. Her routine has been the same since her mother passed away, whom she used to live with. She wakes up in the morning, does the work that her age allows, and prepares food for herself. Afterwards, she takes care of her yard– work which she says she used to do willingly, but is now made almost impossible by of her old age.
“It used to be full of flowers and different kind of fruits. But now my yard has turned into a space that has only tall grass.” She explained that in the past, she used to spend most of the time taking care of the yard.
Her neighbors helped her and still continue to do so. Smiljka says at her age, it would be difficult for her to live long without their help, since they buy her food, take care of her, and do the hard work that she cannot do by herself.
She can’t even welcome those few visitors she has without the help of her neighbors, since they must open and close the gate of her yard for her.
Currently, Smiljka Bajcetic’s only financial support comes from her sister; previously, she received support from some foreign organizations. She also has a brother who lives in Belgrade and visits her sometimes.
“My sister comes once a month and spends more time with me, but my brother rarely comes,” she says.
Smiljka refuses to go back to Belgrade and be closer to her relatives because she does not want to leave the house she grew up in, even though most of her time is spent alone.
“My house is here, I have all my memories here and I have no reason not to live here,” she says.
Of all Ferizaj’s residents, only 0.01% are Serbian, and there have been no reported ethnic incidents between the them and Albanian majority.
According to the neighbors, officials from the municipality and the police come and visit Smiljka time to time to see if she has any problems with others in the village. The neighbors say they never have problems, and that they help her with everything they can when they have time.
All of her neighbors are Albanians, and she has good relations with them.
“The Albanians have always respected and helped me,” she explains, and she is always grateful to them. Her neighbors express their respect for her, saying that if there were more Serbians like her, even the war wouldn’t have happened.
Burhan Hoxha, the owner of a market near Smiljka’s house, says that have never had problems with her, and that in the past Smiljka used to go there and buy food, but now her neighbors do it for her.
“We have never had problems before or after the war, we do not harass her and she has never provoked us,” Hoxha says.
There are 114,000 Serbians in Kosovo, and they make up around 6% of the country’s overall population.
Xhenete Hasani
