I just retired in April, 1988 when I became one of the guards of Baba Vanga. I was taking care of my wife, who was disabled. We were visiting the mineral springs that are in the Rupite, so my wife can have regular baths. One morning, one of Baba Vanga’s guards came to me to ask me if I am interested to work as a guard for the prophetess. Her second guard was drunk driving while taking Baba Vanga home, and they almost got in a car accident. Since this incident, Baba Vanga started to look for a replace.
I did accept, even though my wife needed me very much. I can’t say “no” to Baba Vanga. She did respect me and trust me, so I couldn’t let her down.
I served Baba Vanga for whole 7 years, and was very loyal to her. I had many private conversations with her, where she shared a lot from her life. Often when she finished accepting people for the day, she and I would sit at the bench in front of the house and she would say: “Peter, if you could know how much I’ve been through… When I was 3 I lost my mother, when I was 12 I lost my sight…how much pain, misery, and suffering I had…”
Baba Vanga loved when people were giving her scarves and slippers as gifts. One of her favourite scarves was given to her by Indira Ghandi – it was hand-knitted. Also she had another one that she also liked a lot – given to her by Luydmila Kim who was a famous Russian healer. Sometimes Baba Vanga would publicly share her opinion on aesthetics.
One day Blaga Dimitrova (famous Bulgarian poetess and former vice-president of Bulgaria) visited Baba Vanga. She was wearing a white dress, that was sitting tight on her body. Before she entered the room Baba Vanga welcomed her with the words: “Blaga you should take off this dress – it’s not for you anymore. At this age you have to put on something else – this dress is a history already!”
Blaga became embarrassed, and left the room without saying a word.
Baba Vanga loved to have banitza (baked fillo stuffed with feta cheese), cake, and biscuits for breakfast. Another favourite of hers breakfast meals was baked pasta mixed with eggs and fresh milk. For lunch she would usually have bean soup, rice, or peas. She ate very little, and in most cases she would avoid eating meat. I have heard her saying that it is very healthy to eat everything as long as it is in moderate quantities, and when the time is right for it. Every once and a while she would have a sip of Anis – one of her favourite drinks. She also liked boza ( a thick, fermented beverage containing up to 4 percent alcohol) with a sourish or sweetish taste. The boza is made of various kinds of flour -barley, oats, corn, wheat, but boza of best quality and taste is made of millet flour. Rarely when Baba Vanga was in a very good mood, she would have a 50 ml of whiskey as well.)
When Baba Vanga was among her closest friend and trusted people, she would talk a lot about her life and would share interesting stories. One day we were having a dinner, and she started to talk about her life in Strumitza. With a deep emotion she was telling how she walked barefoot on the snow, to get to the church so she can beg for some money and buy bread. Also she would often mention about the storm that had raised her high above the ground and how she got blind as a result. Then she would mention how she met her husband, and what was her life with him in the beginning – those were all moments that moved her very much.
When Baba Vanga came to Petrich together with her husband Dimitar Gushterov – first they bought a small house, and gradually settled down. Few years later, Mitko built a bigger house – this was the time where the popularity of Baba Vanga had raised significantly. Unfortunately Mitko became an alcoholic. Baba Vanga was very sad as she couldn’t help him at all. Still she didn’t complain, and she lived with him to the end of his life.
Deep down in her soul Baba Vanga had one special “scar”. She was very insisting to have both of her adopted children – Veneta and Mitko, very well educated. Mitko graduated with a Law major, and later became a prosecutor – well respected by a lot of people, but the happiest person was surely Baba Vanga. It was a different story for Veneta. When she was 17, Baba Vanga told her that she can provide education for her and will support her, regardless of what she chooses to study. Veneta was in love with her boyfriend and didn’t want to study anything at the time. Once Veneta had told Baba Vanga something that she remembered her whole life: “You are not my mother to tell me what to do, or force me to go to school. Mother? As much as the neighbour is my mother, this is how much you are my mother.”
Baba Vanga was telling this story with tears in her eyes. She never told Veneta how much those words had hurt her. She had to take so many insults in her life, and what was sad is that most of those insults came from her closest people.
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.
