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.
โYou know,โ Joe began, his voice thoughtful, โFatima has always been an oasis of peace. Itโs not just a placeโitโs 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.โ
Nelly nodded, her eyes reflecting the flickering light. โAnd during World War II, Portugal stayed neutral. Thatโs no small thing, Joe. The whole world was burning, and yet, somehow, Portugal remained untouched by the flames.โ
Joe sighed, his thoughts drifting to his own heritage. โMy country wasnโt so lucky,โ he said, his tone heavy with sorrow. โAdolf Hitlerโฆ 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.โ
Nellyโs expression darkened. โThe Croatian puppet regimeโฆ the atrocitiesโฆโ
Joe nodded, his hands clasped tightly together. โThe river of blood between the Serbs and Croats is something that haunts me. Itโs not just historyโitโs a wound that hasnโt healed. Families torn apart, entire villages wiped out. And all in the name of some insane ideology.โ
He paused, his gaze distant. โItโs hard to reconcile. On one hand, you have Fatimaโa 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.โ
Nelly reached out, placing a hand on Joeโs. โBut youโre here, Joe. You carry these stories, these lessons. Maybe thatโs part of the reason Our Lady spared Portugalโso that people like us could look back and understand the cost of war, the value of peace.โ
Joe smiled faintly, the weight of his memories still pressing on him but softened by her words. โMaybe youโre right, Nelly. Maybe weโre meant to learn from all of this. To honor the peace we have and work to heal the wounds of the past.โ
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 hopeโa hope that the lessons of Fatima and the tragedies of Yugoslavia could guide them toward a better future.