Michael Burke 

Entered April 6, 2021

My condolences to you and your extended family Greta.

Joy Alleyne (Family friend)

Entered April 6, 2021 from Toronto

Dear Greta, Lidija, Goran, Charlie, Anthony and Andrew
Gently, may time heal your sorrow and may warmest memories of your dear Mama remain. With sincere sympathy.

Joy

Ann Baitd (Family friend)

Entered April 6, 2021 from Mississauga

Please accept our condolences on the loss of your beloved Mom. This is such a difficult experience for your family to have to go through. I know God will comfort you in your loss and please know that we will keep you in our prayers.

Fernando Palenzuela (Friend of Lidija's)

Entered April 6, 2021 from Miami, FL

My condolences to you and your family.

Sudha & Sujata Berry (Friends of Lidija Nikolic)

Entered April 6, 2021

We did not know Lidija's mother directly except through her daughter Lidija. She raised Lidija to have humane values, be warm and compassionate and be humble despite her accomplishments so she must have been a beautiful person herself. We offer our deepest condolences to Lidija and her family and send them thoughts of strength and empathy to get through this time of mourning. We pray that Mrs. Nikolic is now at rest and in peace. Sudha and Sujata

Our Mama taught all 3 of us to knit as children. When we lived in Sombor at her aunt’s salas. I remember a pair of blue mittens and they were joined with a knitted string. I would pull the mittens through the sleeves of my coat and if my hands were hot I could take them off and they dangled there without fear of getting lost. My brother recalls knitting a scarf. Here he is holding a hat and wearing one I knitted recently for a couple of Canadian musicians. I’ve sort of become this niche talent where some musicians and guitar shops have taken a fancy to my hand knits and they post pics on Instagram which makes me so very proud of the talent my Mama taught me so many years ago. I remember her showing me how to wind the yarn on my left forefinger and how to thread the stitches from the right hand. My hands were small and difficult to keep the tension yet I was determined I could do it. I also remember Mama had a wooden mushroom that she used to darn hand knit socks. I learned how to do that from her as well. In this age of mass production of knits, the warm memories of learning this craft from my Mama. Her care, warmth and gentleness will always be a part of me

When you go to the doctor’s office in Yugoslavia, you all go inside a room and when it is your turn you go in to see the doctor in his office. There are usually 30 people ahead of you. I had to take my little sister to the doctor myself in Sombor and I must have been in grade 2 or 3 myself and she would have been 3 years younger. When our turn came, a very aggressive woman simply budded in ahead of us. She didn’t care, we were kids, and as an adult she felt she had that right. This behaviour frightened me and as a result we were the very last patients that were seen by the doctor. Such was the doctor’s office triage method. You simply accepted it, as you accepted most things imposed by authorities. My sister once got a bad scratch on her hand off of a glass fragment while we travelled on the train from Sombor to Sonta. The palm of her hand got infected and the doctor in Sonta took a pair of scissors and cut the skin on the boil to allow the infection to drain. She cried and it looked like it hurt a lot. I felt her pain and commiserated with her. She was still a little kid, 5 maybe. The day before we left for our new home in Canada we had to go through a number of legal procedures and signatures were required at every desk we passed by and we were also asked for urine samples. There was an assortment of glass jars in various sizes, some of which used to be jam jars that were offered to us to use. The man in front of us gave the clerk what looked like a full litre of urine. Of course I was looking at it, I was 10. I wonder now what that government office did with all those bottles of urine. It seemed like a ridiculous exercise. Perhaps it was mandated by the Canadian government, I don’t know. I was too young. The night before our flight which would first take us to Belgium and then to Montreal and finally to Toronto, we all had dinner at a cafeteria. We got our plates first and we offered some to Mama but she said she would get hers on the next turn. By the time she got to the area where they served the food they had none left. Mama was left without dinner and we felt bad because ours was already eaten so we couldn’t share ours. On the plane to Brussels they gave us a small salad that had black olives which I tasted for the first time and I thought it was horrible. I only vomited once on the flight to Canada. Nonetheless we arrived and started school and somehow settled in and learned English. Here we are on my mom’s 80th birthday and the first day we arrived to Canada.

Goran was 1 year old chasing chickens at Salas yelling 'Koka' then Mama said 'kad ces biti sto godina? (when will you be 100 years old?) Goran said 'Ajde ljubi akice! (come kiss my elbows!) Then Majka said 'onda ces videti svog Boga! Naj lepse je kad mozes da ih sve pokrijes sa jednim cebetom (then you will meet your maker! It is best when you can cover them all with one blanket!)

Mama went to Zlatibor with her school as a teen. She was in love with her teacher and he sat beside her on the train. She thought her love for him was her secret. When he fell asleep the curls from his hair fell on her shoulder. She remembered this moment as one of her happiest in her life. She told herself she would never forget that moment as long as she lived. She told us this story in 2016 and we want to preserve her tenderness and her precious memory.

On this day on Friday May 10, 2019, Mama had an out patient procedure at the Humber River Hospital. She was so happy and talkative that day. After the procedure she said to me 'ajde da te ja castim'. Translation: 'let me treat you'. So, we (Greta and Mama) went to the cafeteria and had coffee, a muffin and a yogurt. That was such a happy and memorable day! I will never forget those precious happy moments with my Mama!