Helena Janes marked her 105th birthday this week in her Zagreb apartment, surrounded by family, friends and a steady stream of neighbours — and asked for one unusual gift: a bottle of wine instead of a birthday cake. A TV crew from Dnevnik Nova TV obliged, arriving with the wine and a blanket, and heard her one birthday wish: good health.
Janes was born in Ludina, a village in the Sisak area, and moved to the Croatian capital in the 1950s, where she has lived ever since. Her century-plus has spanned enormous upheaval — she counts three wars among the events she has lived through. Her one serious health scare came in 1947, just after the Second World War, when she contracted severe tuberculosis, at one point with a cavity in her lung. Remarkably, she says she has never been hospitalised since and has otherwise stayed well.
So what is the secret? Janes insists there isn't a big one, just a set of habits she has kept for decades: no coffee, no smoking, and — despite the birthday bottle — she says she doesn't drink wine day to day. She eats light, simple food, goes to bed at 10 or 10.30 every night, and gets up whenever she pleases. She worked a full career and has now been retired longer than she was employed, still managing her daily life on her own.
The neighbourhood clearly adores her. Well-wishers kept dropping by all day, many remembering her 100th birthday five years ago, when she invited the entire building for a party in the courtyard outside. "That is life," she told the TV crew. This time, the celebration was smaller and more intimate — but the message was the same as ever: health comes first, and a steady routine beats any miracle cure.
For travellers, the story is a small window into everyday Zagreb — the apartment buildings where neighbours still gather for centenarian parties, and a city where a resident can live independently past 105. If you're visiting, it's a reminder of what many people love about the Croatian capital: a pace of life that prizes routine, community and an unhurried coffee (or, in Janes's case, none at all) over the rush. Zagreb makes an easy city break at any time of year, and stories like this are a good excuse to wander its residential neighbourhoods as well as the main square.
