After 24 years, Jovan found the family who helped him in 1995. One woman was his salvation

Foto: Privatna arhiva

30-year-old Jovan Skrbic from Gradiska departed as a child from Bosnia during the war for the Greek city of Kavala at just six and a half years old. In addition to all the bad memories, this young man remembered a Greek family who took him to their home 24 years ago, as well as a neighbor whose name he thought was Gina, although it later turned out to be Sotiria, which translated to Serbian means Spasa (from the word "spas", salvation.")

She spoke Serbian and helped him commmunicate with the rest of the family. Although he only spent a month with them, he later spent decades trying to find them. And a few days ago he finally managed to get in touch.

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Jovan danas, Foto: Facebook/Jovica Škrbić

This young man, who now works as a teacher, was sent with other children from Gradiska to the Greek city of Kavala in the winter of 1995, when the war in the former Yugoslavia was nearing the end. Jovan arrived in Greece alone, without parents (his father died in 1992 as a soldier of the RS Army), without speaking the language that would allow him to communicate with others.

After so many years, Skrbic especially remembered a neighbor he was convinced was called Gina. She lived upstairs from the family that received him, she spoke Serbian, and communicated with Serbian children, Jovan recalls.

His desire to find her, not just the family, was so strong that he tried in every possible way to contact them. The memory of the generous, humane Greeks was refreshed only by one shared photograph that Jovan keeps. He's six and a half years old in it.

Jovan je dečak u roze džemperu, Photo: Private Archive

He shared his longstanding desire to find the Greeks via the Live from Greece Facebook page, and they did the rest.

"Jovica (nickname for Jovan) remembers the smallest details of the house he lived in, even though he was six and a half years old and was there for a month. He also remembered a fireplace, the time they baked fish in it, and even one green telephone. He spoke about them with such emotion that we had to do our best and help them get in touch," Ivana Stanojevic, one of the admins of the Live from Greece group, tells Telegraf.rs

Jovan sa grčkom porodicom, Foto: Privatna arhiva

She added that everything happened like in a movie, from the search for the Greeks, to finding them.

"The Greek media became very interested in the story. Several portals published it, including daily newspapers. Then the story of Jovan aired on TV. They posted a photo of him with the Greek family and... A woman recognized herself and said, 'The child we are looking for is looking for us'," says Ivana.

She contacted the TV station, they contacted the daily newspaper that soon contacted the journalist who published the story and who had been in touch with Ivana all the time, while she was in touch with Jovan.

They spoke after 24 years

Tthrough a Viber group, Jovan connected with a boy from the Greek family, the Apostolis. According to Ivana, Jovan took everything emotionally, and even  had to see a doctor for overexcitement.

"Jovan didn't believe it at first, he didn't want to rejoice, he thought it was some mistake. It wasn't until they exchanged a few sentences that he realized that he had really found them. Of course Apostolis remembers him too. When they spoke, Jovan sid to him, 'I was a little devil' and Apostolis replied, 'Yes, you were, mom says so too'. They exchanged jokes, they spoke about when they would meet again. Jovan will go to Kavala next year, now it's important that they have finally found each other," Ivana tells us. With her help "Gina" was also found, the neighbor who taught Jovan to tie his shoelaces and who spoke to him in Serbian.

(D. Simic/d.simic@telegraf.rs)