Gilford's welfare director goes home again after 52 years

There are some who are lucky enough to be able to say that they witnessed history and then there are people like Erika Johnson of Gilford, who lived history, whose life story was shaped by the whims of a dramatically changing, political world. Those whims would have her leaving her Eastern Europe homeland as a child, only to return a half-century later to fulfill her stepfather's dying wish.

Johnson was born in 1943 in Maribor, Yugoslavia. It was a fairly small town then, on the banks of the River Drau and only a few miles from the Austrian border. Two years prior to her birth, Yugoslavia had been annexed by Nazi Germany, and the world she was born into was full of war. Maribor was a munitions-producing center for the Third Reich, and as such was targeted by Allied bombing campaigns.

Although she was too young to remember, Erika's mother tells stories of running from basement to bunker, seeking somewhere safe from the bombs.

Meanwhile, her step-father, Stan Kaluder, had been drafted by the Luftwaffe, Nazi Germany's air force. Too short to be a pilot, he spent the last of his teenage years as a tail gunner in planes flying over Europe. He eventually would be captured by Allied forces, and was held for a while in a prisoner of war camp in Marseilles, France.

After the conclusion of World War II, Yugoslavia re-formed as a communist country in the mold of the Soviet Union. Erika's father resisted joining the Communist Party, and grew nervous as he watched non-party members lose their jobs or become otherwise discriminated against. "He didn't know what was going to happen, he didn't want to put his family in danger."

Kaluder received a temporary travel permit to look for work in Austria, but as soon as he left Yugoslavia he kept going, all the way to Nuremberg, Germany, where a friend would give him refuge.

A year later, Johnson, her mother and her younger sister received a vacation visa. They packed two suitcases and met Kaluder in Germany, leaving behind their home and nearly everything they had ever owned in Maribor. "We left on vacation and never came back," she said.

Making a life in post-war Germany wasn't ideal, but it wasn't terrible, either. Johnson was 12 then, and she said, "We were fine, much better than before. It was worse where we came from."

At least in Nuremberg, her family was free to practice Catholicism. In communist Yugoslavia, religion was seen as a competitor to the proletariat ideology, and her family had to pull the shades to hide their Christmas tree. The family avoided going to their local church for fear of retribution, and when she went to be confirmed, she was demoted two grades at school for her transgression.

"It was hard, we didn't have a lot of stuff, but you don't miss what you don't have. I remember my mother standing in line for food, clothing... You make do with what you have."

Despite the hardships, Johnson said, "I had a great childhood. We had family. As long as you had food and your family and felt safe, that was what was important." She smiled when she thinks of herself as a child. "I was a tomboy. I liked to climb trees, pick chestnuts and berries. We created things to do, we were more creative in those days."

Her family lived for two years in a decommissioned military barracks in Germany. Both her parents could find work, but her parents, especially her step-father yearned for something more. It was his dream to take his family to America, and through their church, they found sponsors in New York, Chicago, and South Bend, Indiana.

With two young daughters, her step-father didn't want to settle in a big city, so they set off for their new home in South Bend. "We didn't want to live in a barracks forever."

The sponsor in South Bend had arranged a place to stay and work for both adults, but that still didn't mean it was would be easy for them. Learning English was difficult, and as recent immigrants, especially for her mother, it was difficult to find fair working conditions. "The hardest part for me was starting school at 14 and having people make fun of me because I couldn't speak the language. And watching my mother struggle, watching people take advantage of her." Through it all, her parents treated their difficulties as blessings. "They struggled, but they always said, 'struggle is good, it makes you tough."

South Bend was where Erika met Bill Johnson, who was then a Notre Dame political science graduate student renting a room in a house across the street. Johnson had served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and so was a little older and more mature than his peers, something Erika appreciated.

Their romance has lasted and produced four children and five grandchildren. They've lived in Gilford for 17 years. Erika currently serves as the Welfare Director for the Town of Gilford, as president of the charitable St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, and on the board of Ozanam Place, a not-for-profit social service agency that focuses on single-parent families who are in danger of being homeless.

Then, in March, Erika's stepfather died at the age of 83. It was his wish that his ashes be scattered on Mount Pohorje, which overlooks Maribor. The mountain was significant to Kaluder, who had loved to hike and as a young man would take his goats and dog up the mountain, which today is favored for its skiing. There was also a small chapel on the mountain, where Erika's father would take her for worship, just the two of them, where no party officials would notice.

In the 52 years since the last time she had laid eyes on Maribor, quite a bit had changed. It was now in a different country, Slovenia. The town had become a city of more than 100,000 residents, making it the second-largest city in the country. However, there still existed her childhood home, her family's church, and many relatives, some of whom she didn't know of before the trip. "It was very emotional for me," she said. "Walking the streets I used to walk as a little girl, they're there, but they're not there because everything has changed."

Happily, the Maribor she left, scarred from war, in the midst of political upheaval, was a more relaxed, stable and prosperous place when she returned in September.

In spite of the tribulations that history subjected her family to, Erika has no regrets.

"I wouldn't trade any of it. It's who I am, it makes me appreciate things. I never forget where I came from."