Drašnice

From Brac I went to Makarska where my relatives had arranged for a taxi driver they knew to take me to Drašnice to see where my grandfather had lived. His house is in old Drašnice up in the foothills of the mountain. After the earthquake in 1962 everyone moved down to the water. My grandfather was long gone by then, growing grapes in Middle Swan in Perth.

Pucisca stone

A couple of years ago I went to Brac in Croatia. I wanted to see my great grandmother's house in Pucisca. The first photo is the view from the path behind my distant cousins house. He introduced me to a local artist who was building his house in the hillside just below this. It was almost Gaudi-like, the walls curving around organically. I was then taken to the stonemasons school. Brac stone is a dazzling white, it was like being in a room full of never-melting snow. It has softened and darkened in the photos. The students here leave regular high school to learn the centuries old trade of stonemasonry. Later that evening my relative told me that he ran into the man he introduced me to who was sitting with some old ladies in the town square. The artist asked who I was and when told I was a relative and my age the old ladies said emphatically "God has sent her to you!". There was talk of my being his future wife but unfortunately for the old ladies God had arranged for me to leave the next day.