It Was February 10, 1942 in Belgrade, Serbia and My Grandmother
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It was February 10, 1942 in Belgrade, Serbia and my grandmother, Katarina Korać, was born. World War II had started more than 2 years before and the country was in turmoil. She lived in a modest 3-bedroom house with her parents and eight siblings. From a young age, she dreamed about life and adventure beyond her city as the third of all eight children. She grew up helping her parents run the busy household and raise her younger siblings. She loved going to school because it was an escape from all the work at home. My grandmother was very active in school, participating in all sorts of activities including choir, student government and sports, and she was particularly good at handball. Her school was the champion handball team of the city, and it was through her sports activities that she met the love of her live, my grandfather Milo Petrović at age 15. Because of how young my grandmother was, she was forbidden from seeing my grandfather but she managed to find ways to see him a few minutes here and there every few months. Through this process and over the course of almost two years, they fell in love and decided to get married - my grandmother was 17 years old at the time. When they decided to get married, they went to a local judge to get a marriage license. At first, he was reluctant to give them the license because Katarina was so young. The only question he asked was whether she could cook for her husband. Taking his skepticism as a challenge, Katarina proceeded to describe the many meals that she had cooked for her family over the years. The judge, initially dumbfounded, recovered and signed their license on the spot. A few years later, they made the difficult decision to leave their friends and family behind and move to Paris to pursue a better life. At first, life was difficult. As they did not know the language or anyone there. Often times, Katarina was on her own, working at a meat factory while Milo juggled working at the local machine shop and playing professional soccer. Even though Milo had 2 jobs, it was still hard to make the money they needed to live comfortably. Katarina got a better opportunity a few months later, making transformers for television and radio. When she had time, she would work towards getting a license for hair styling. She now had more than one job. Then, one day, Milo and Katarina saw an advertisement on television. It was for anyone who was interested in coming to the United States. This was because the U.S. government needed people with certain specialties like machinists, geologists, technicians, electricians, and other types of engineers to work on its newly formed space program. They applied and were accepted. Milo’s job was to make the clamps for the astronauts’ helmets and gloves. The U.S. government asked lots of questions because they wanted to make sure that Milo and Katarina were not working for a foreign government. The government said that immigrants that were coming to America could come over a lot faster if they had family living there. Luckily, Milo had an uncle that came to the USA in 1912 and was living in Akron, Ohio. They came over in July, 1962 to New York, New York a major port of entry for immigrants. The government gave them the papers to live legally in America, which they filled out and submitted. Milo and Katarina took a barge over the Hudson River to reach the train station. They then boarded a train to Akron, Ohio. It was very stressful for Katarina because she didn’t realize they would be on the train overnight. Every time that there was a stop, she would jump up an say to the conductor “Akron, Ohio?!” These were the only words of English that she knew. Finally, at 11 o'clock the next morning the train reached Akron. My grandmother and grandfather were happy that they were living in Akron, because the family they lived with spoke Serbian, but they were also miserable because the summers in Akron were scorching hot and the winters were brutally cold. They quickly agreed that Akron was not going to be a place they wanted to stay long term, so they decided to pack up their belongings and drive west until they hit the ocean. They decided to go to Los Angeles because Katarina got a job recommendation there from someone they knew in Akron. They left in February, 1963 and took the famous Route 66. They arrived in California after 10 days because they were not in a hurry so they wanted to see America. Once they arrived to Los Angeles, they looked for a place to stay and found an apartment close to Milo’s work because they only had one car. Katarina dropped him off at work at 7:00 a.m. every day, and then from there she would go to beauty school to take a brush up course that lasted 3 months. She learned English through her school. Every time she learned a new word, she would write it down and practice it with Milo at home. Slowly, Katarina learned English when she talked with the other women at work, and eventually learned to speak and write the language. At the end of the 3-month course, she had a test of 150 questions ahead of her. This test would determine her future. It would give her a good job if she passed, and 3 more months of beauty school is she failed. Katarina studied very hard, passed her test and received her license to become a cosmetologist. This gave her the ability to anything as far as beauty and hair styling. She went to a lady named Jackie Bori to apply for a job in her salon. Katarina got a job in Beverly Hills and so she and Milo moved there so that they could be closer to her work. They wanted to be closer to her work because they were planning to raise a family, but they would still have to work. Katarina began working 10 hours twice a week so that she could earn more money because many women at that time were going back to work. They would come to get their hair done for the weekends with their families. After a long period of working long hours, which included working 5 days a week, Katarina had enough money to start a family. Katarina’s family started coming over to the United States. One of her younger brothers, Milo, came over in 1968 and lived with her and my grandfather for a while before he was able to afford to get his own place to live. She gave birth to my father, Christopher Alexander Petrović, in August, 1969, and in that same year her and my grandfather got a second car. One of her younger sisters, Emi, came to the United States the same year. She had my aunt, Amy Marija Petrović in July, 1974. Two years later, another one of Katarina’s younger brothers, Steve, came to the United States. Shortly after she had my aunt, she began working only 4 days a week. She would drive her kids to school every week. She drove them for 23 years altogether, until my aunt went to college. Katarina’s youngest brother, Nick, came to the United States in the year 2000 and like his siblings before him lived with my grandparents, my dad and my aunt. My father went to college at Columbia University in New York, New York and after he graduated, he went to Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, graduated and became a layer in Los Angeles. My aunt went to Lake Forest College in Chicago. After she graduated, she went to UCLA to get a degree in education. She moved to San Francisco and met my uncle there. They got married 2006 and had my grandmother’s first grandchild, Rade Milorad Vignović. My father met my mother, Jennifer, in 2002 while both of them were living in Los Angeles. My grandmother loves to tell the story about the first time that my dad brought my mom to meet her and my grandfather at their house. She saw my mom and dad walking up to the house holding hands, and at that moment she knew that they would be together for the rest of their lives. Boy was she right! My mother and father got engaged in December 2003, were married in July 2004. Almost 4 years later, they had my grandmother’s second grandchild, me, Remy Sofia Petrović, and shortly after that my younger cousin Milo (named after my grandfather!) was born. I had the good fortune to spend time with my grandfather before he sadly passed away in August 2011. Shortly after he passed away, my brother Zander and my youngest cousin Lily were born. Katarina Petrović was married to the love of her life Milo for 53 years. .