To the family of Zarko Draganic, please accept my deepest condolences.
I learned only yesterday of Zarko’s death at a gathering of old friends. Unfortunately I lost touch with Zarko many years ago. We were childhood friends back in Brockville, Ontario in the 1970s and early 80s. A whole circle of us---Zarko, Tom Mitten, Dean Logie, Travis Cauley, Bill McCracken, myself, and some others---grew up together, from kindergarden at Brittania Heights through the elementary and high school years. Zarko was much loved by all of us. From the age of 5 when I met him he was full of life, a very smart kid and so funny. He kept us laughing in his inimitable way, jokes I still remember 40 years later, that twinkle in his eye and an infectious laugh. We had so much fun together. I’ll never forget the times we would hang out at his house, where he introduced me to such new inventions as the CD and the computer, that magical blue-screen Wordperfect. I was amazed to see him demonstrate how you can throw a CD at a wall without damaging it---you could never do that with LPs!
Life takes us in different directions and Zarko (we always called him Jock, sometimes Zark) and I lost touch by the university years, but I think I speak for all of our old group when I say I’ll always remember him with great fondness. I remember him as a happy kid, very intelligent, always ready with some witty remark or out of left field joke. It doesn’t surprise me to learn what a success he made of his life. I didn’t know Zarko the man---how I wish we had kept in touch---but the boy I will never forget. Rest in peace, my old friend.
To his wife and children, I am very sorry for your loss. If the man was anything like the boy---and when is that not the case?---then he was a great man indeed.