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Giuseppe Albano, a Sicilian of American origin, was in charge of Gornji Milanovac. Born in Naro, at age 11 he moved to the United States with his family and lived in Brooklyn, where he learned the shoemaking trade from his father. Due to the incredible circumstances of life, he came to the city of Šumadija and became a Serbian son-in-law, because he looked at Darinka, one of the most emancipated women of Gornji Milanovac at that time, with whom he had four children. Due to his love, he changed his faith to Orthodox and became a Dragoljub, but he also became the best shoemaker in that part of then-Serbia.
“Dad, with the help of his godfather who supported him to become independent, started a business and was very successful. The shoe store was located on the site of the current Hotel Šumadija. It always had about 15, 16 apprentices working. It was equipped according to world standards. with leather furniture and a favorite refuge for Milan students, whom he gladly helped, buying them cigarettes and always giving them a dinar to find them, ”says Irma, the daughter of Dragoljub Alban.
He never wanted to return to the United States or his native Sicily, and how much this Italian deserved for the development of Gornji Milanovac and how far ahead of his time is best demonstrated by his works.
“She had visions of developing her business, she brought singing machines to Gornja Milanovac, founded a course for women learning to sew and embroider. Many women from neighboring towns put on their first shoes when they got married, thanks to my dad. There was a magnesite mine in the villages of Srezojevci and Milićevci, so he built a kiln to roast magnesite. He was also very active at the time when the Takovo factory was recovering, “says Irma.
Then the war came and everything stopped. At the end of the war, Dragoljub was prohibited from working as a foreign citizen, but that changed thanks to his master’s exam, which none of the four shoemakers of the time had to meet the conditions to found a shoe cooperative.
“How much credit my father has for founding other handicraft shops from that time, it has never been written like all his works, except for Archbishop Dragoslav Mirković’s funeral speech in which he claims that he gave his hands more to the poor. The postwar years also brought poverty with them, so he often loaned money, borrowed money from a bank, and handed over blank bills of exchange to take the money and give it to someone else. They left him many bills to pay because he was a signatory. Although he helped the church, he is not on the benefactor list, because they did not want that, ”said his daughter.
After the Second World War, the life of the Albano family changed significantly. They lived hard and modestly, both because of the conditions of the country and because of Dragoljub’s illness. Irma only acquired Yugoslav citizenship in 1951 in order to get a job, and five years later she had to renounce her Italian citizenship under oath. Giuseppe, like Dragoljub, has been buried in the Gornji Milanovac cemetery since 1964, and seven years later he was joined by his beloved Darinka.
The grandson Zoran Gregović visited Sicily and brought a stone from the hometown of his grandfather, Naro, which even today in the grave of Gornji Milanovac’s son-in-law bears witness to a love and a man who always belonged to Gornji Milanovac with his soul.
(Kurir.rs/RINA)
delivery courier
Author: delivery courier
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