“Plima” B-Side #1

The Croatian War of Independence started in 1991 when I was two years old. Some of my earliest memories are the siren sounds, basements packed with people, fighter jets flying by, and my father leaving for war. While these memories have become an inherent part of my identity, the biggest impact on my childhood was the absence of a father figure. There were times when my mother did not know whether my father was alive or not. Sometimes he wouldn’t come back home for over 6 months. I was too young to fully understand why he was not around. His absence created a deep void, especially in the years that followed. My parents divorced during the conflict, so even after my father returned from war, I did not see him very often.