Joe Jukic and Nelly Furtado sat together in the quiet of the evening, the soft glow of a candle illuminating their faces. The conversation had turned to history, faith, and the strange, intertwined fates of nations.
“You know,” Joe began, his voice thoughtful, “Fatima has always been an oasis of peace. It’s not just a place—it’s a symbol. Our Lady of Fatima kept Portugal out of so much chaos. Look at Spain, torn apart by civil war. But Portugal? She spared us from that horror.”
Nelly nodded, her eyes reflecting the flickering light. “And during World War II, Portugal stayed neutral. That’s no small thing, Joe. The whole world was burning, and yet, somehow, Portugal remained untouched by the flames.”
Joe sighed, his thoughts drifting to his own heritage. “My country wasn’t so lucky,” he said, his tone heavy with sorrow. “Adolf Hitler… that madman. While Portugal was protected by Our Lady, my homeland was being torn apart. Hitler used Yugoslavia as a testing ground for his twisted ideas. He wanted to convert Russia to Catholicism, but first, he experimented on the Serbs.”
Nelly’s expression darkened. “The Croatian puppet regime… the atrocities…”
Joe nodded, his hands clasped tightly together. “The river of blood between the Serbs and Croats is something that haunts me. It’s not just history—it’s a wound that hasn’t healed. Families torn apart, entire villages wiped out. And all in the name of some insane ideology.”
He paused, his gaze distant. “It’s hard to reconcile. On one hand, you have Fatima—a beacon of peace, a miracle that saved a nation. And on the other, you have the horrors of Yugoslavia, where faith was twisted into a weapon of division.”
Nelly reached out, placing a hand on Joe’s. “But you’re here, Joe. You carry these stories, these lessons. Maybe that’s part of the reason Our Lady spared Portugal—so that people like us could look back and understand the cost of war, the value of peace.”
Joe smiled faintly, the weight of his memories still pressing on him but softened by her words. “Maybe you’re right, Nelly. Maybe we’re meant to learn from all of this. To honor the peace we have and work to heal the wounds of the past.”
The candle flickered, casting shadows on the walls, as the two of them sat in reflective silence. In that moment, they were united by a shared hope—a hope that the lessons of Fatima and the tragedies of Yugoslavia could guide them toward a better future.