Mimin sin Nik kao dete sa ocem Gasom foto: Privatna Arhiva

Mim also told us an anecdote from 1987, when she was in Washington for an award ceremony.

Woz's new GS computer was then unveiled on the steps of the National Archives as America celebrated the 200th anniversary of its Constitution. “The class for the Constitution ceremonies was supposed to be led by a movie star, but he was high on drugs. That's when Apple asked my son Nick, who was celebrating his 17th birthday that morning, to fill in as the instructor teacher. Neither my husband nor I had any idea he had been asked to do so. In the end, when Nick used a stylus pen to write his name - "Nick Bižić"- and put the 3 dots over his name, I thought my heart would burst with joy! I thought I would die of happiness!" Mim exclaims.

Božić sa sinom 2019.foto: Privatna Arhiva

Christmas

Mim is eagerly looking forward to Christmas. On Christmas Eve, she will be with her church family to bring in the Badnjak to the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Elijah and sing "Oj Badnjače" and "Rozdesstsvo". The wheat, which she planted on St. Nicholas Day, is flourishing. She will also bake bread with a lucky coin inserted in it. After the Christmas church service on Sunday, she and her sisters will go to her cousins, the Trklja family’s home in Pittsburgh where they gather every year. Mim also keeps three candles of her grandfather Nikola Mamula, which are almost worn out. The family then recites the prayer "Oče Naš" as quickly as possible so as not to burn down the 76-year-old candles too quickly. She also sent us a photo of her granddaughter, Jocelyn, from 13 years ago, carrying wheat in Houston, Texas, where she lives.

foto: Privatna Arhiva

An important figure in Mim Bižić's life was her mother, Laura. "She taught us that no one is better than us, despite money and prestige, but that no one is below us either. Equality for all!” Mim points out and adds that when they lived in California, from 1943 to 1945, their mother worked for Kaiser Aluminum, teaching the ladies who escaped from the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, how to process data. Mim still keeps the little notebook Laura used to record the women's wages, who were working for pennies and half cents per minute.

"At home in Pittsburgh, our Mother and Father took turns running our shop Karlo Confectionary store. Mom did it during the day, while Dad worked at the Serb National Federation as an English Section Editor for the American SRBOBRAN. But Mom also worked in a plastic factory from 4 to 12, burning her fingers taking out the plastic tiles cutting them into pieces of eight and boxing them when each contained a full set. My Dad would come home from the office to take care of the store until closing. Then Mom would come home from the factory after midnight and mop the large floor of the store so that it would be ready for the next day," says Mim and adds that even though her mother was crippled from the age of seven and wore a hearing aid, nothing prevented her from making a better life for herself and her family.

Majka Laurafoto: Privatna Arhiva

In 1943, a very young Mim and her mother were featured on the front page of the local newspaper. A fire broke out in Baba Anđa's and grandfather Nikola's home, where the sick baby Milana (Mim), who had just gotten out of the hospital after almost dying from double pneumonia, was staying temporarily because the young Karlo couple did not have a working furnace in their first rented store. Laura received a phone call and rushed to save her daughter and mother before the firemen arrived.

"My father Milan also worked for the San Francisco Chronicle during World War II, but he quit when the paper started publishing anti-Mihailović news and promoted Tito", says Mim.