The Salted Cod

Maja Nicolic is the foreign rights agent at our agent’s company. She was born in Belgrade and grew up in a small town about 25 miles from there – Smederevo. Her story about salted cod and the death of her aunt is another one of those synchronicities associated with major life transitions.
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When I was pitching the synchronicity book at the Frankfurt Book Fair, it reminded me of something that happened some years ago.

 My uncle married a beautiful woman from  Korcula, one of the Croatian islands.  Kruna (it means crown in English)  made an absolutely delicious salted cod stew. Part of what made the stew so good was that she was from the islands and living inland away from the sea, so there was always a touch of melancholy about her. When she cooked the stew, it was like something special went into every dish. As Yugoslavia fell apart and the economy collapsed, it became impossible to find salted cod over there and I always wanted to find a way to send it to her.   

For years, my daughters  had dance lessons on Sunday morning on the West Side and I did my weekly food shopping at a big store there. Every Sunday I’d look at the salted cod and remember my aunt. Then Kruna got breast cancer and the summer she was sick a lovely young woman from Serbia, Milena,  was in New York and agreed to take the salted cod back to Serbia for my aunt. 

I spoke with the person in the store and was assured they could vacuum pack it and make it easy to carry.  The day Milena was leaving I went to the store and they were out of salted cod! And yet, an unusually large order had come in earlier in the week.  I was very upset because they’d always, always had it, but did not
see it as an omen. 

When  I came back from the airport, there was a message that my Aunt Kruna had taken a very sudden turn for the worse and died that morning.

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5 Responses to The Salted Cod

  1. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Don't find this sad. It actually seems hopeful to me, that her aunt spoke to her, communicated with her, from the other side.

  2. Natalie says:

    Yes, sad. It only illustrates further, that there is a greater 'something' at work.

  3. GYPSYWOMAN says:

    hmmmmm…..very beautifully poignant story!

  4. Nancy says:

    Wow. No need for the salted cod… sad.

  5. lakeviewer says:

    Oh, how sad.

    You had bad luck; and she had the very worst of luck. Nothing connected.

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