An abundance of flowers and whimsical statuary have helped Dubrvka and Zdenko Moro and their family feel right at home in Avalon. The family left Bosnia and Herzegovina when war broke out. Photo by Tom Steiner for The Citizen

In what probably seems another lifetime, home for Dubrvka and Zdenko Moro and their daughter, Vanesa, 23 and son Marjan, 21, was the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they lived until war broke out in the region in 1992.

“When it started, we moved the family to Germany, where we stayed for seven years. After the war ended in 1999, life was very hard, and so we moved here, with help from Catholic Charities,” Dubrvka said.

It was a tough decision for Dubrvka and Zdenko, but with their children entering crucial years in education, it was a move they decided to make, eventually finding a new home in America -- Avalon, to be specific.

But it wasn’t just finding a new place to live. It also meant learning English to add to their native tongue, Serbo-Croatian, and to the German learned during the seven years of the war. The parents learned the language mostly on their own, while Vanesa and Marjan, enrolled at Northgate High School, had help from teachers there.

Then there was the need to find jobs. Dubrvka used her baking skills to take a position decorating wedding, birthday and special-occasion cakes at a large bakery in South Hills; Zdenko found work as a cook at a local restaurant.

And finally, there was the desire to find a place that felt like home, preferably a place that combined past traditions with their new lifestyles.

“When we first came here, we lived in an apartment for a year, but it did not feel much like home,” Dubrvka said. “But now, we live in a more European apartment.”

Just what makes an apartment European? Three factors important to the Moros: lots of light, an orderly configuration of rooms, and a balcony for growing a garden. Better yet, their third-floor home has two balconies, one for flowers and one for vegetables. And being located on the top floor of the building, both balconies are exposed to optimal sun and natural watering.

Gardening is part of Dubrvka’s heritage, having grown up with large gardens surrounding her home in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“When we went back home to visit [this summer] we helped in the gardens there. My dad’s family gardened, too, with lots of fruit trees and grape arbors,” Vanesa said.

Dubrvka said that she usually starts in May, just after Mother’s Day. “I like to spend time going to the nurseries, picking out what I like.”

She plants her flowers -- mostly annuals -- on the balcony that receives less direct sunlight. Containers of various colors of impatiens and petunias line the top and the base of the balcony rails. Everblooming honeysuckle that flowers at night and closes during the day vines around some of the larger plants -- snake leaves, cilantro and wintered-over chrysanthemum. Aloe vera, December cactus, portulaca, begonias, marigolds and basil somehow find room in the limited space.

“She does the garden every year. Sometimes she doesn’t know the names of the flowers, but she knows what she likes,” Vanesa said.

The back balcony is limited to tomatoes, healthy stocks thriving in the direct sun and providing a steady harvest since mid-summer.

“My garden was better last year. The weather in May and June did not have enough sunshine. Too cool, too much rain. But it’s good now,” Dubrvka said.

Lots of bees and butterflies find their way up to the garden, and in the winter, when her balcony “…is sad,” Dubrvka puts out birdfeeders. “That helps.” She takes in as many plants as the apartment will accommodate and then cleans out the containers to have them ready for the next season.

“I enjoy flowers. I love working with them. When everything is planted, I enjoy sitting out there and relaxing. Usually there are two chairs out there, but sometimes just one big one -- for me!”

After 10 years, the Moro family has earned a few pieces of the American Dream. Vanesa recently graduated from LaRoche College with a degree in international business and finance. Marjan is a senior at Wheeling-Jesuit College, where he studies pre-engineering.

Their “European” apartment in America provides a memory of their former home, with Dubrvka’s garden, in a way, linking them.

“It’s more like a home when there are lots of flowers,” she said.