Mirko Batrović
1936

Mirko’s father drove the city electric tram in the interwar period. During the Second World War, his Orthodox family were forcibly baptised as Evangelists. In his life, Mirko – an electrical engineer by profession cared for his younger brother, two daughters, two grandchildren to whom he was a legal guardian, and took care of raising his niece.
In 1997, my widowed daughter was killed, and her two children became orphans. I offered to be a legal guardian of my grandchildren, but considering my age, I couldn’t become one formally; so, my younger daughter took over the guardianship on paper. My younger grandson was 6, and my older grandson was 10. We lived together in this flat until they graduated and began working. We lived off my pension.

Mirko has two daughters and four grandchildren. In 1997, his older daughter, who was then a widow, was tragically killed, leaving two underage children without parental care. Due to their age, Mirko and his wife could not take formal custody over their grandchildren, so this was done de iure by their younger daughter. Hower, the grandparents directly tended to the care, upbringing and sustenance of their underage grandchildren.

Upon the decision of the Osijek Social Services from 23 May 1997, the underage children without parental care were entrusted for further care and upbringing to their grandfather Mirko and grandmother Marija, their late mother’s parents.