By Jozef Radi
– In memory of Vehip Hoxha, who died in the internment camp in Savër of Lushnjë –
Memorie.al / There are people who only briefly touch your life, but within that touch is the entire magic of the eternal, and their message, somewhat silent, without even knowing why, takes you and carries you wherever your life wanders. You might forget many important things in your life, but the magic that this person, almost unknown, left… within you, is so great and unbelievable that you find it not impossible to forget, but necessary to remember, in that special dimension which is hard to understand what it is; because what you have read, learned, and studied in life hasn’t given you the right key to reach the truth of that smallness that left a great, visible, and indelible mark…!
Starting somewhere in early childhood, it still follows you wherever you roam: through times, spaces, and people… until it finds the day, somewhat violently, to tell you: “The truth that belonged to you must also belong to others…!”
And this character in my life comes from no fantasy, no fairy tale, no act of bravery; he was simply there in my life, until that afternoon when he took me by the hand and, with the shadow of a missing grandfather and a teacher whose age had not withered his first passion, showed me that love for every smallness of life becomes the greatest wealth, and a person can gain it daily, in defiance of life’s harshness, without submitting to circumstances, even when they appear monstrous!
This wise old man, past seventy, was called Vehip Hoxha, from the Hoxha family of Gjirokastër. The escape of his only son, Asaf, in the late 1950s, had indeed banished him to Myzeqe, but it had not managed to blemish his appearance as a dandy, nor his perpetually perfect attire, as if fresh out of the box, nor his gentlemanly demeanor, nor his sharp gaze that missed nothing, especially beauty, nor his graceful and slow, almost daily walk towards the city; so much so that he created the idea that he was a creature outside the communist reality… and not a common convict of the Albanian gulags!
Vehip Hoxha had been among the first teachers in Gjirokastër, a bank director in Korçë during the 1930s, a high-ranking Bank official for a long time in Tiranë… an emancipated man, the father of the first Albanian female tennis player: Andan Hoxha, the uncle of Nedim and Vedat Kokona, was forcibly obliged, even though over seventy, along with his three daughters: Andan, Suzana, and Neriman, and his wife, Lady Nalo, from the Bey family, to spend endless years amidst the unwelcoming muds of Myzeqe…!
There, where the lives of many honored Albanian families were soiled, and where my childhood and that of many of my peers had just sprouted.
It was his extremely serious appearance that led me to see Uncle Vehip as a defier of the regime, as a great spurner, as the man who even against the great Myzeqe mud “wore two pairs of shoes”!! A friend of mine, who undertook to clean the muddy pair, mockingly, even tasted the flavor of his cane… which he still remembers vividly!
Even though he was among the oldest, Uncle Vehip called all the women in the camp Lady (Zonja) and all the men Gentleman (Zotëri)! So much so that even I, who was no more than 7-8 years old, one afternoon appeared as a “gentleman,” even though he invited me by the hand into his house, addressing his wife and daughters: “This is the son of Mr. Lazër and my little friend; from today, you must honor and respect this gentleman as a great man!” And his tone and word were law!
Uncle Vehip was certainly the most dedicated Albanian philatelist…! His stamp albums were countless, and his collections were among the richest in Albania!
Philately became the great closeness between us!
I will try to present all the conversations as one, since they were so beautiful and spread over years… striving to convey his essence as a teacher, human, and visionary!
Showing me his many albums, he would tell me: “You see these postage stamps; they look like they have no importance, they look like some worthless things that just accompany letters and postcards! No, that’s not the case… every stamp has excellent information!
Look: first, they show the country they come from; second, they show the year they were issued; third, you can find an event, a character, a flower, a city, an animal, a sport, an Olympiad… and what do I know, so if you’re attentive, you learn many things without asking anyone.
For example, from the stamps, you learn that England doesn’t have a King but a Queen, and there is no stamp of her Kingdom that is not accompanied by the Queen’s image…! Do you know what the Queen is called…? See, you don’t know! Queen Elisabeth! There, you learned that too…! And you’ll learn that the Queen’s image isn’t only on the stamps of the Kingdom, but also on all the colonies, such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and many small colonies.
You learn the capitals of the world, you learn the names of leaders, you learn geography, you learn history, and you even learn politics…! You learn how to collect stamps, how to clean them, how to place them in albums, how to exchange the ones you have in bulk for others you don’t have…! How to make friends in Albania, and why not, around the world.
Stamps first enrich you with culture, with information, you spend your free time on a passion of yours, and why not, you can become rich, spiritually for sure, but also with money, because if a known collector is missing a stamp that only you have… he’ll pay you an arm and a leg for it…!
So, if you’re smart, you understand that that insignificant stamp suddenly becomes big and helps you in life, to look at everything with interest…! Because the one who knows how to value a stamp, that is, a piece of paper; he knows how to value a book, he knows how to value an event, a woman, an airplane, a character…! The one, who isn’t impressed by that little stamp that costs a few pennies, isn’t impressed by anything in this world!
He is born for nothing, lives for nothing, and only dies full of nothing…! Whereas the one who lives with interests and thinks about something important, he truly lives life, and don’t forget that there are many who, even though they die, leave value to their name and are hard to forget! See, even those stamps you look at with mockery, teaches you how to make your life beautiful!”
I don’t know what color my childish face might have been during those magical explanations by that man; I am sure that his light, even after four decades, has remained untouched within me, no one could pluck that light out of me! Because it is rare in life to meet characters of this magnitude, but the most important thing is that if fate helps you meet them, at least preserve their image carefully and spread it, so they are not forgotten…!
Uncle Vehip would accompany me through the barracks yard, where he had two large pink roses, and he would clip a bud with scissors and say: “Take it, you deserve it; you listened to me attentively and weren’t bored; I am convinced that what I told you will serve you…”!
And he remained the greatest teacher of my life!
Uncle Vehip died suddenly in 1967! I also joined the group of internees who accompanied him to the city’s cemetery that day, after pleading with my father with tears in my eyes! I was the only child who accompanied a great friend of mine, an unrepeatable teacher who, even though thrown into the mud, lived and died as a Gentleman!
Uncle Vehip is one of those who only briefly touched my life, but within that touch remains the entire magic of the eternal, and his message, somewhat silent, without even knowing why, takes me and carries me wherever my life wanders…! Memorie.al
