Hana Gasic's son Dejan and Tamara Gasic at their grandparents' graves in Sarajevo

This picture was taken after the unvieling of my parents' monument in the Sarajevo cemetery. From left to right are my brother's daughter, Snezina Montiljo, and my two children, Dejan and Tamara Gasic.

My father and mother died within a half of year of one another so we erected the monument together for both of them. lmmediately after my father's funeral my mother made us purchase a grave for her next to him. I think she knew she would not last long without her beloved Menahem. She was unconsolable after his death. We even brought her to Belgrade for some time, thinking that living with us and our children would improve her mood. But it did not work. When I came home from work our neighbors would tell me that my mother had spent the day on the terrace crying to the heavens asking her Miki why he had left her.

Some things have a way of coming full circle. My father's family, the Montiljos, were known as Montiljo Hahasid, "the pious" a name of respect bestowed on those Sephardic families who were especially religious. My parents clung to remnants of this during their lives, and now my children have rekindled this tradition. My daughter, Tamara, has chosen to live in Israel, and my son, Dejan, is an observant Jew living in Belgrade. Today, Dejan bears his grandfather's name, Menahem, and continues in the tradition of the Montiljo "Hasids."

Snezina and her parents moved to Israel at the outbreak of war in Bosnia. During her stay in Israel she has acclimated well to her new surroundings. A few months ago she married an Israeli named Doron, finished school, and now works as a manager in a travel agency. My son Dejan is completing his studies in ethnography in Belgrade.
My daughter Tamara finished her studies in landscape architecture and then fulfilled her dream of making aliya. She currently lives in Haifa and is pursuing her master's degree at the university there.

Photos from this interviewee