3/1/2023 | 14:45
Klavdija Simler creates her Christmas fairy tale in the garden in December. (Photo: Šimen Zupančič)
Klavdija Simler, who lives with her family in Visoče, near Planina pri Sevnica, inspires many with her encouraging life story.
After a serious traffic accident, it was announced that she would remain in a wheelchair. But she didn’t give up. With extraordinary courage, perseverance and inner strength, she walked again after just one year. She found a new meaning in life and began to enjoy everything beautiful through the creation of a wide variety of works of art. With great gratitude that she was able to do this, this year she put on display again in her garden a Christmas fairy tale inspired by Kozjan culture and tradition, with decorations made from waste packaging and more than 33,000 holiday lights in white light.
“In life, we all have ups and downs, difficult trials, including me. I experienced a serious traffic accident, after which I barely survived. They announced that I would remain in a wheelchair. A good year after the accident, I walked without crutches. I will probably never really feel Triglav again, but I will watch it from the valley. This is also enough for me.” narrates Claudia Simler.
“I live for art and culture, I call myself an artist at liberty. I also help people; I’ve already done countless volunteer hours and I’m always thinking about how to extend the day.”
Strength for new steps
“When I was still immobile in the hospital after a serious car accident 23 years ago, they brought a wheelchair to my room towards the end of the treatment, saying that I would need it. I then angrily snapped at the doctor asking if he was crazy because I wasn’t even going to sit on it let alone use it. They had to bring me crutches. They put me on my feet for a minute or two and held me. There was no way I was allowed to walk, because I was really shaking all over. They strictly told me not to even try it again.
I couldn’t wait until the afternoon hour for the shift to change. Until then, I was calculating in my head how many steps it was to the door and back, and across the corridor to the toilet, I was actually watching the nurses and counting their steps. I told myself that I can do this way! Then I really took fifteen very shaky steps in one direction, to the toilet. I sat on the shell and cried like a child because I did it on my own, without help. Then back again. To this day, the medical staff does not know that I succeeded even then. That day, I found the meaning for each next step, each time it was longer and bigger, until today.”
Moving to a piece of paradise
She did not give up, she fought on bravely and with an amazing inner strength. “Because of all the falls and life’s trials, life only made me stronger and stronger. After that, I was successful in everything I did. But I tackled everything with small steps at first. After a car accident, when I was alone and physically limited until my partner came home, I started creating. My favorites were painting and calligraphy. I needed peace, without excitement and noise, so we moved from the city to Visoče, to my piece of paradise on Earth. Here I can create, get ideas and look forward to every beautiful day.”
Surrounded by nature, she found a completely new meaning in life. “Nowadays, I know a lot of wild plants in the area, which we collect and eat until the snow covers them. I research and grow medicinal and wild herbs that help us in our family to overcome many health problems. Already Kosobrin once said that for every disease a rose grows. That’s really true. Unfortunately, people don’t notice this and are poisoning our beautiful land.”
Gratitude
She began to look forward to everything that life had to offer her. “For me, it doesn’t matter how many times I fall in life, it’s more important how many times I get back on my feet. I’m not healthy, but I’m positive. That is why I am incredibly looking forward to life and all the thorns under my feet. If I survived this accident, the only limit for me is the universe, I can achieve almost anything. It’s been 23 years since the accident and every year I bake a special cake on this day. I am happy with her because life has given me another chance.”
She also inspires others with her encouraging life story. “Grateful for my new life, I am more and more proud of my work and life’s achievements. I paint in several techniques. I write by hand nine old fonts from different periods, from the ancient year one hundred to today. I crochet, print graphics, create unique cakes and culinary art, play countess Elisabeta Graška and I am the castle’s writer, but at the same time I am a nurseryman, a culinary mentor, a costume designer, a volunteer. I even combine the skills of painting and calligraphy with confectionary and am professionally trained in everything. Most recently, I attended a painting workshop with a well-known master of painting Nik Anikis Skušekthis gave me a really nice passport for further creation.”
Modesty and true love
Now he also looks at holidays differently. “The real meaning of Christmas is not spending money in shopping centers and competing to see who has put more in the trolley. The true meaning of Christmas lies in its modesty and family intimacy. Just as the nativity scene has its origins in the Christmas mystery. We know that Jesus was not born under a festively decorated Christmas tree, somewhere by a warm hearth, but in a manger, in a humble manger dusted with the sand of Bethlehem. With this, he showed us that true greatness lies in the ability to (p)remain humble and humble. It is also one of the most picturesque displays of true love.”
A Christmas tale
In the festive December, Klavdija Simler and her family crown their joy of life with a Christmas fairy tale, this year for the third time in a row. During this time, more than 33,000 white lights shine in the home garden in the evenings, and all decorations are made from waste materials.
“Our Christmas story gets bigger every year. When setting up the nativity scene, we took into account the local goat culture. The figures are life-size, painted in the Kozjan national costume from 1910. A family from Laško posed for me in costumes made from originals from that period, and they are used in the folklore group Anton Tanc from Laško. The goat cradle with the child is also painted after the original, also from the same period. I used Slovenian indigenous breeds for the animal motifs. The ox is a zigzag cattle, the sheep are from Jezera-Solčava, next to them are Styrian chickens, a goat from Drežno and a honey bee from Carniola. Part of the story is the old hive of the Šentjur Beekeeping Society. We added farm tools from the neighboring farm. The aspen and spruce are made from waste wood from a nearby forest. The decorations are made from waste packaging and were made by the children of the Šentjur youth center and Planina primary school in Sevnica.
Christmas carols performed by a local zither player play in the background Jasmine Lefty with friends and led by the Toronto-based vocal group Plamen Marije Ahačič Pollak. In the fairy-tale Santa’s bakery, we bake sweet treats, our sourdough doughnuts with pumpkin oil, apricot jam and cinnamon. Since we are in the Kozjan park, a large luminous Kozjan apple of the Styrian pogačar variety, or Christmas tree, is hanging from the tree, which blooms just at this time. But that’s not all, we also have a wishing well, a hand bell and much more, with which the modern pulse of the holidays with the sparkle of lights intertwines with the indigenous features of our area. Anyone can come and see our fairy tale.” She has already been admired by many people from Slovenia, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Macedonia, Russia and England, and this year they also announced their arrival from Canada.
Nativity scene with a message
Her interesting nativity scenes, which she creates using various techniques and materials, are also on display in Slovenian places every year during Christmas.
“I paint or create nativity scenes by pinning, threading, in the parchment technique, from sugar on Slovenian potica and on cakes, as well as from salt dough or as collages and stained glass, I also make life-size paintings on wood. I even created them from scrap materials. Years ago, I exhibited them in Bad Ischl, Austria, and in the Vatican among a hundred cribs. Creating requires a lot of patience and sensitivity in order to be able to reflect the message that I want to bring to the world as an artist: we humans come into the world fragile and helpless. Only if we follow the extraordinary example of Jesus and shape ourselves for good, we slowly surround ourselves with whiteness and also help others to illuminate the darkness of the helpless human spirit. That way, at the end of time, we are not blinded by the light that awaits us.”
Renata Ucman/Jana magazine
