Natasha Velova About Baba Vanga – one of the daughters of Vitka Petrevska
In the beginning of the 70-ties I started to visit Baba Vanga more often, through my mother. I remember that one of her first words to me were that I will marry a man whose name will be Mitko. I didn’t have a boyfriend with such a name back then, so I quickly forgot her words. Ten years have passed, and believe it or not, I met a man named Dimitar, who became my husband shortly after. He even was a distant relative of Baba Vanga – on her husband’s side. Both my husband and Baba Vanga’s were from the same village.
In the summer of 1978 Baba Vanga was our Godmother at our wedding. I remember that my husband did forget his wedding ring, so Baba Vanga took hers off and gave it to him, so we don’t ruin the ritual. When she was putting the ring on my finger she told me quietly: “Natasha now it is a great moment for you, but be prepared that later on is the heavy part of life.”
I did understand the meaning of those words, not until my husband passed away. Just like Baba Vanga’s husband (whose name was also Dimitar), my husband died at the same age – only at 45. He left me with two children to take care of by myself.
Many people have asked me, since I am so close to Baba Vanga, how come I didn’t ask her if my husband is going to die at such a young age. Well, the truth is she never told me this directly – she usually didn’t share such bad news to most people. She tried to give me a hint at my wedding. Few months before my husband died me, my husband and Baba Vanga were sitting under a big Poplar in the Rupute. He asked her: “Baba Vanga, I have a pain in my leg, and I can’t understand what is the reason for it.” She replied: “Mitko, let’s not talk about the leg now, but I want you to tell me how many cigarettes do you smoke a day?”
“About three packs of cigarettes a day why?” Baba Vanga yelled at him: “Throw them in the river this instant, because later on it will be too late, do you hear me.”
My husband died of heart attack. One morning he just didn’t wake up. He coughed for a whole night, he was choking, and then he fell asleep…forever. Baba Vanga did warn him, but who to listen. Besides, this was what was written in stone for my husband – words that Baba Vanga would often say.
Baba Vanga loved the jokes in all subjects. My sister Stefka is very witty, but sometimes she would get a little vulgar and cynical. Baba Vanga liked her sense of humour and used to say: “It is fine for Stefka to talk like that. She can say whatever she wants, but she is a very good wife and is not a slut like many other women.”
In terms of hygiene, there was something extraordinary in Baba Vanga when it comes to that. Over the last two years of her life, she only allowed me to help her wash. She wouldn’t even allow my mother to be in the bathroom. Every time I would help her I was asking myself the question how come she is so clean, where this energy comes from? Regardless of her age and sickness towards the end of her life, Baba Vanga was always indescribably clean.
Baba Vanga often stayed infront of us with a smile, standing straight – she had a very correct posture. She would ask us how does she look, and which dress to put on. She loved clothes that were brown, beige, or blue. Once I gave her a gift for her birthday – it was a vest in brown-beige colors, which I knitted myself. Baba Vanga loved it so much that she wore it for years, until she passed away. Usually when somebody brought her a gift, she should have first touch it slowly, and then say that it is very beautiful. Then when the person leaves, sometimes she was throwing away the present, as she sensed when people were hypocritical and didn’t give the present out of their hearts.
Baba Vanga loved to have at least 2-3 different meals on the table. She didn’t eat much, but she insisted to have a food variety on her table. It was easy to cook for her, because she would tell you to the very last detail, what ingredients to cook, and for how long to boil/bake it. I personally have learned so much from her. She was considering the person’s personal health and the season, when picking the food for someone. For me for example, she always recommended me to drink a lot of water, and to regularly eat cottage cheese, milk, and feta cheese as a had a low blood pressure. She had a food recommendation for everyone.
I rarely have heard Baba Vanga to speak about her husband Mitko, but to some extent I can imagine her life with him. She often was telling him to stop drinking, as this will kill him – and this is what happened eventually. He was from the same village as my husband, and unfortunately most people there were simple, limited, and their manners were fairly primitive. So I think that it wasn’t easy for Baba Vanga to communicate with a person that was completely different than her, taking into consideration her high intellect and moral values. But at the same time, she was accepting Mitko as her fate, and she loved him in her own way.
Even though I was very close to Baba Vanga, I always had this great respect for her. When she was “working” she was very focused and strict. Outside those hours, when her closest friends surround her she becomes a completely different woman. She laughs, she says jokes, she listens to a radio, takes a walk, gets together with friends, etc. She was constantly having people around her, but she did miss the ones that were close to her soul, to help her get rid of her loneliness.
Zheni Kostadinova graduated Philosophy at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She has worked as an editor at the student TV show “Ku-Ku”, and as a reporter at the National Radio “Horizon”. For over 15 years she is a columnist at “Weekly Trud” newspaper writing about esoteric and psychology. In the same newspaper she is maintaining a page on literature. Zheni Kostadinova is the author of some of the most popular books written on Baba Vanga including “Baba Vanga The Prophetess”, “Baba Vanga Predictions”, “The Secret of Baba Vanga”. Her first book was translated into Russian, Polish, Latvian, Serbian, and Albanian. Zheni is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Writers. She had published three books of poetry: “Fire Sticks (2002), “17 love colors” (2007), and “Fig Jam” (2008). In 2012 Zheni has founded the art-house “Kuklite”. It is a doll gallery and a mini-museum located in the old downtown of Sofia. The gallery exhibits different dolls placed in specific categories. Besides the exhibitions, the art-house “Kuklite” also have the priority to work with children from the local schools, so they learn more about the traditions and customs of the different nations. The main idea is to transform the art-house “Kuklite” into a centre for cultural exchange, creative collaboration between representatives of different fields of art, science and philosophy. The art-house will hold meetings with interesting personalities, and will be a place of exhibitions, seminars, workshops, premieres of books and documentary movies, puppetry, and many other great events. The art-house “Kuklite” will also be a place where collectors can display their favourite artefacts and can share the history associated with them.
