Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507070036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Her death, from complications following a severe asthma attack, caught friends off-guard.
Marjana's classmates huddled in small groups before the memorial service, comforting each other with hugs and shared memories.
"I remember that she was never afraid to tell you what she thought," said Amanda Ryan, Marjana's best friend since the seventh grade. "She always knew her own opinion about everything. I thought she was so strong because of that."
Marjana was born in Yugoslavia, but spent two stretches during her childhood and teen years in Blacksburg. She attended kindergarten in Blacksburg when her father was a graduate student at Virginia Tech. Later, fearing the trouble developing in Yugoslavia, her father accepted a faculty job at Virginia Tech and moved the family back to town when Marjana was in middle school.
Many of those who knew the rising senior mentioned her immeasurable intelligence and ever-present smile - described as radiant and infectious. Her ability to make others happy didn't go unnoticed.
She had an "unconditional love of other people," said Julie Grady, who taught Marjana in advanced placement chemistry. "She loved us from the inside out."
She left an impression on many lives - and those who gathered Wednesday night celebrated her life with an intimacy not usually found in such a large crowd.
As soothing New Age music played in the background, visitors filed in silently to admire Marjana's expressive drawings (she'd never taken an art class) and poetry, displayed on a wall at the church along with photographs that chronicled her life.
Her parents brought the door from Marjana's bedroom to share more of their daughter's personality - drawings, pictures and a favorite Calvin and Hobbes strip tacked to the door.
Another close friend, Gilee Reid, described Marjana's thirst for knowledge, the way she was "always dissecting ideas - making sure they made sense to her."
Marjana was known for her well-rounded mastery of academics - from math and science to the humanities. She took a rigorous course load with four advanced-placement classes last year; she scored A's in each one.
"I think she could have done anything she wanted to do," said teacher Karen Finch in a telephone interview.
Finch, who taught Marjana geography in the ninth grade and coached her on the Forensics Team, also spoke at the memorial service. "I can still hear her laugh with delight and stomp her foot with frustration."
She urged everyone to keep Marjana's spirit alive, to adopt her "impatience with mediocrity."
"She was so alive," remarked Russell Gregory, a professor of religious studies at Radford University, who officiated at the service. Marjana "lived life as a feast, where utensils were recognized as sometimes necessary, but hands on was the preferred means of participating."
Marjana's boyfriend, Virginia Tech student Jason Long, said he'll think of her "walking barefoot through fields of grass" and the simple things in life that she enjoyed.
"We were very close; we were peanut butter and jelly," Long said. He spoke of their plans for the future which included marriage - he now wears a gold band on his left hand.
Marjana was first diagnosed with asthma at age 5 and with juvenile diabetes just a year ago.
"She didn't want to accept her asthma as debilitating," said her father, Dusan Borojevic, an electrical engineering professor at Tech.
He said his daughter was determined to live life to the same extent that other people did, but he thinks she probably lived a life twice as full.
She adjusted well to living in a strange country. Marjana was born in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. She moved to Blacksburg with her father, her mother, Milja, and her older brother, Milos, in August 1982 so her father could study for his doctorate at Virginia Tech.
They stayed until February 1986 when he graduated, then moved back to Yugoslavia. They returned to Blacksburg in 1990, Dusan Borojevic said, because they anticipated trouble brewing at home.
His daughter loved life in Yugoslavia, but she embraced American culture and all it had to offer.
"In fact, she was the only real American in our family," he said.
Her mother said Marjana had opened the family's eyes to new things in recent years. "I was learning much more from her than she was learning from me," she said.
Marjana's family has established a scholarship fund in her honor at Blacksburg High. Donations may be sent to BHS in care of Ann Miller, Patrick Henry Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24060.
Long expressed the sentiment shared by those close to Marjana: "She isn't dead. She's very much alive in everybody - especially me."
by CNB