My Relationship with My Grandparents: Memories of My Family

Fond Memories of My Hungarian-Serbian Roots

Ever since I was a little boy in Hungary running around the crowded streets of Szeged I’ve always had fond memories of my grandparents. My relationship with my grandparents holds a special place in my heart. With both my parents being Serbian, my grandparents and most of my relatives are in Serbia including my aunt Eva and Cousins Adrian and Villiam. Like my grandparents I also have fond memories about my aunt and cousins but not to the extent of my grandparents they are… special. Since I lived in Hungary until I was 5 it was difficult to visit my grandparents on a regular basis since we didn’t a car and had to walk everywhere. When we did get to Serbia we usually stayed at my grandparent’s house. Since I am the first born out of my other relatives I’ve always been examined under a massive microscope, not in a bad way but more caring. To be honest I don’t remember much from years 1-5 but after I moved Scotland I remember much more about my visits to Hungary and Serbia since I wasn’t just crossing the border I was flying which for some reason is easier to remember.

I was 5 when I moved to Scotland and I honestly I don’t remember the plane journey very much, all I know is that we started living with Laszlo, my dad’s friend. Lazlo lived in Tillibody and I also went to nursery there until we moved to Alloa when I was 7-8. At this point I still couldn’t speak much English and relied on my mum or dad to translate for me. It wasn’t until I reached primary 1 in Sunnyside that I started to pick up and understand English. This is when I would meet friends I still have today. Around the time when I was in P4 I was starting to speak English kind of fluently in school and Hungarian in my house to my parents, but this was also when my dad couldn’t find a job and had to move back to Hungary to find a job, this resulted in my parents breaking up from a long distance relationship. I would still see my dad once every 1-2 years for a week at maximum since he still needed to work. By the time I was in P6 I was told I going to see my grandparents for the first time in about 5-6 years, so understandable I was over the moon and bouncing off the walls of the house.

The time had come I was going to see my family for the first time in 5-6 years, so my mum and I got a plane to Budapest and got picked up by my dad at the airport and got taken to his house in Szeged (where I grew up). My mum stayed in a hotel for a day and left the next day back to Scotland and left me with my dad for a week. We stayed in Szeged for a few days and on the 3rd day we got in the car and took off like a rocket to Serbia, grandparents bound. My grandparents live in a town in Serbia called Subotica (where both my parents went to school and grew up) this is a good and bad thing since whenever we visited we crossed the Hungary Serbia border, it would take upwards of 3 hours in the car waiting to get through into Serbia. Once we did get through the border we started our road trip to Subotica. When we arrived in Subotica we went to my aunt’s apartment to see my cousin Adrian (at this time my second cousin Villiam had not been born) and my aunt Eva (who always cried when she saw me for the first time in years).

My Relationship with My Grandparents

I have a much stronger connection with my relatives on my dad’s side of the family than my mum’s since I never met my grandparents on my mum’s side the only relative I have met on mum’s side is my uncle Pali though I didn’t spend a lot of time with him. After we had caught up with my aunt and cousin we went over to my grandparents’ house which is a 5 minute drive from my aunt’s house. My dad and I arrive to the house and are met with my grandparents preparing lunch for us. My grandparents’ house is quite small and compact but on the inside it feels like a mansion almost like a real life TARDIS. Once we had eaten at my grandparents’ house my dad took me to his old school and show me round the town of Subotica. If I’m being honest I didn’t do that much when it comes to doing different thing but we mostly just stayed in my grandparents’ house for the whole period of time.

Reconnecting with Family in Foreign Countries

Once again there is a huge gap between my visits to Serbia so around 2 years ago my mum, my step dad and his family and I went to Croatia for 2 weeks in the summer of 2017 but before that I visited my family in Serbia for a week. So the beginning is the same as last time I got flown over and picked up and then taken to Serbia to see my family. This time we visited my great-grandma who lives next door to me grandparents. I love visiting her but it is difficult to communicate since I knew no Serbian and she knows no English so there is a big language barrier between us so I have to have my dad translate for me. Of course I could speak to her in Hungarian but I would struggle to understand her since native speakers of Hungarian speak at the speed of light which makes it difficult to decipher words and questions. At this time my second cousin Villiam had been born and this would be the first time I met him in person. As I am writing this that is the last time I saw all of my Serbian family since I’ve not visited them since then so for all I know Adrain can speak English, Villiam can walk and many other things could have happened since the 2 years I was there last.

But I’ve been in Scotland for 11 years now and I am glad we moved here from Szeged, all that time ago since I have met great people throughout my 11 years here and I intend to stay for longer but… I will never forget my Serbian and Hungarian roots that stays with you until the end of time and never lost.