As we reported several days ago, an unusual internet search was started on Reddit, where one user posted in the r/Croatia subreddit, hoping to find their mother’s best friend, someone the mother remembered only as Blaženka from Rijeka.
When we wrote the first story, there were already some hints on Twitter that people who knew this misterious “Blaženka from Rijeka”, recognized her wanted to help, and now we’re happy to report that it’s exactly what happened. Alenka Juričić writes for Rijeka’s daily Novi list how a friend of Blaženka’s recognized her from an old photo posted on Reddit (and published in Novi list), told her that her old friend from the United States was looking for her and they were able to get in touch!
Blaženka works at a newsstand in Opatija these days (which sort of raises the question of why she didn’t see her own childhood photo in the printed edition of Novi list, but that’s splitting hairs) and was happy to hear from her old friend Verica, who moved to the States as a teenager, to stay with her mom who had moved there some time before she did.
Blaženka says she never forgot her childhood best friend, and that she was extremely happy to have been given a chance to renew the friendship. Now that the two friends have spoken over the telephone for the first time in decades, they’ve agreed that Verica will visit Rijeka and Blaženka as soon as possible!
So, let’s never again hear about how the internet just alienates people. There are so many moving stories with a happy end, just like this one.
