The Angel helps if God tells him so

Bell Project Interviews: Todorka.

For three years I have sung in the church, in Pudria, for three years I have been a solo singer.
I am a believer, yes, this is innate for me, and that’s how I’ll keep on living.

God, I remember the bell, it was so big! It got stolen by a young Gypsy lad, from Dolna Bela Rechka, and he hung himself in prison. They said he tied himself to a bed sheet and hung himself on it… it’s no good. Then, the priest gave us another bell but it got stolen again because of the copper… well, there are all kinds of people…

Once we went to the Forestry up there on the top, with Gyosha, but you don’t know her. We were going down when she said: ‘Let’s toll the bell.’ ‘Why are gonna toll the bell now?’ ‘No, I am gonna toll it, whatever may happen, to scare the people.’ And she tolled the bell. With a rope. She tolled two-three times and then we ran away. We ran away… well, one remembers everything. And later I was telling to Petka, we sat together on the bench, all from this bench died… no one was left, only me. Eight women of us were sitting there. Kiro died, too. He is from our uncle’s family, you should know. Now, there is no one around me.

Bela Rechka… Ah, the sound, I haven’t heard such a sound anywhere else… A wonderful thing, when I tell you, now this was a bell! Will the new one be…? Well, the one in Pudria was beautiful, too, it still lasts, it hasn’t been stolen there… Well, the sound… a strong sound, very beautiful… Now, there is no bell, they ring a piece of iron, when somebody dies, they tie it there so little Petar can ring it.

Those who died young, they died good-looking… and those who die old… ugly, that’s how they are remembered…

But isn’t it better to live longer?

Well, it’s good, if you have no worries, if you are in good health. I wish my eyes were well, I wish I didn’t break my leg.

Still see how many things you can tell us now. There is no one else.

Now, even the vineyards don’t get cultivated in Bela Rechka, they are abandoned. There’s no one to work. Everything is grass.

You can read the beans, can’t you? Who has taught you?

Ah, I don’t know… I taught myself directly, I saw how women told fortunes and then I started
on my own – this I… If you have a wish – three beans should fall down, for joy.  Two – two people are consulting about you, they know, it’s good, and a journey. One bean – he wonders about something, and he wonders if he should propose to you, because you are very beautiful.
My system…

It shows. When Bisera had to go a second time to Korea, she called me on the telephone: ‘Mother, something’s not right, we won’t go to Korea, they won’t let Joro go.’ I told her I was gonna throw the beans and see. I threw the beans and I called her back. I said: ‘You will go, they will take Joro and you will go.’ And indeed, they called me. I didn’t feel well at all, then. Well, and that’s why I went blind. I cried for her, cried, cried. So I cried my eye out. What could I do? That’s how it was destined, to live this number of years, to go blind, to break my leg. Who knows what will happen? I only wish God won’t make me suffer when I start dying. Because one doesn’t know then how one’s gonna die. Some people suffer a lot.

Does God make them suffer? Isn’t there some angel to help?

The Angel… helps, if God tells him so.

8th March, 2008, in conversation with Diana Ivanova, Valeria Valcheva, Mariy Rosen, Albena Kovacheva, Galia Ivanova at Varshets.

Download todorka.pdf.