Josip Predavec and Vladimir Maravić both went to study in Prague. They got to know Ludmila and both of them fell in love with her. As they valued their friendship, they didn’t want to ruin it by arguing, so they decided to play a game of chance – they were drawing a straw and Vladimir was the one who got lucky. Soon after, he asked Ludmila to marry him. He finished his civil engineering studies and was sent to Sisak, Croatia, to the river embankment construction site. Over the next few years, Ludmila gave birth to four children – Vlasta, Milan, Bojana and Jelena (Jadranka’s mom). The war came soon after that Vladmir was drafted and had to go. He came back, but unfortunately, he had contracted tuberculosis right before coming back home. He eventually passed away from the disease. Vlasta also contracted it from him and passed soon after. That left poor Ludmila crushed and alone with 3 children and no money to support them. She had decided to go back to Prague and stay with her sister for a while. She did housework as much as she could to be able to put her kids through school.

In the meantime, Josip Predavec also got married and had a son, but his marriage didn’t hold for long. Upon receiving the news of what happened to Vladimir and Ludmila, he immediately ran to Prague. It was his moment – he asked her to marry her and soon after they all moved to Dugo Selo, near Zagreb. And that is where Zlatko was born. As you know, Josip was a high-ranking politician, so back in the day the inevitable happened. One day he was walking around with Jelena, Jadranka’s mom, when suddenly a person jumped in front of them from a raspberry bush. He had a red mask over his face and a shotgun in his hand. He shot Josip right in the stomach. Josip passed right there, while Jelena was holding him in her arms. It was a tragedy, both her and Ludmila had a complete breakdown – Ludmila was once again left without a husband. Thankfully, by this time the kids were older, so they started managing on their own.