Zvezdana is an extraordinary woman who, despite being deafblind, speaks to hearts with her life force, wisdom and warmth. In her early childhood, she was marked by a bomb explosion that came invisibly and inaudibly. Over time, the world around her also became like that – silent and dark.
She gradually lost her sight and hearing, but not without the will to live. Zvezdana did not give up. Her path was full of pain, loneliness and misunderstanding, but from these depths grew unstoppable determination, unwavering faith and incredible inner light.
In a life where many would not persist, she built – with her heart, with touch, with love. Her message is simple and profound: “The deafblind hears internally, is internally enlightened.”
Although she cannot see the person she is talking to with her eyes, she sees him with her heart and feels him more strongly than someone whose eyes can see him.
Zvezdana found her strength in faith. She draws the courage for each further step from Jesus, without whom, as she herself repeatedly emphasizes, she would not be able to do it. She has decided not to respond to evil with bitterness, but with goodness. She responds to rejection with compassion. To darkness with inner light. To injustice with quiet but irresistible courage.
“Even a drop of water wears away a stone.”
This is her guiding principle. Drop by drop – with perseverance, with faith, with love.
She joined the Deafblin Association of Slovenia DLAN seven years ago and the only thing she wishes she had known DLAN earlier. As she likes to emphasize, the DLAN Association has given her so much. With an irresistible desire to help others, she says: “The DLAN Association must exist. It must live on. I am old, I am slowly saying goodbye, but I want it to be easier for everyone who comes after me and not to suffer like I did.”
With gratitude to the Deafblind Association of Slovenia DLAN, she says: “You gave me this, that I am finally human, that I mean something to someone.”
All of us who are lucky enough to have met her are immensely grateful for her. We are grateful for the love, warmth and all the wisdom that she shares with us and that we will carry with us throughout our lives. We are grateful and happy that our paths have crossed.
Her story teaches us: no matter how dark it is around you – if you carry the light within you, you will find your way. Zvezdana teaches us that seeing and hearing are not necessarily a matter of eyes and ears. The most we can give is to be and remain Human.
