Hello, I come from a small town in Croatia mostly known for the famous writer mentioned above. The thing I wanted to share with you guys is the story of her death that I once thought was just a scary fake story but now as an adult, that went to the school 7-8 years ago, don’t find it fake anymore.
I heard it for the first time from my upperclassmen in the hallway. Our school is named after her and is known as the most colorful school. Its walls on the inside and outside are painted with random characters from her books and othet authors. Before I tell the story let me just set the scene.
In the locker rooms there would be one shower and one toilet plus three sinks in each locker room (ofc one for boys the other for girls). For some reason after many years (in my eight grade) the female shower was suddenly locked (I mean it never worked but you could still stand in it) and there were metal bars surrounding it like a prison cell. You can’t get in, but the one in the boys wasn’t locked up.
The story goes like this. He told me that Ivana herself once attended this school and as she grew up as a famous writer she became the headmaster of the school. Took creative liberty with it and had the school painted(by students) inside and out with their favourite characters from her books (exmpl. Segrt Hlapic). The school even had a small garden right in the middle of the building where she would keep peacocks as some sort of pets idk.
(Can confirm this my dad and his mother saw them it was the best thing ever, so it’s a fact. They later donated the birds to a zoo nearby because they tried to escape all the time and attack the cleaning leadies when they would give them food or clean the garden).
One day when Ivana went in by herself, the cleaning ladies watching thru the glass scared, once she entered the birds were actually calm and gathered around her. Some would let her pet them etc. The ladies were shocked, it’s not like Ivana had a special bond with them she barely even got in and spend time with them so it was a mystery.
After spending some time in there, she went out amd noticer her skirt was way to dirty even her legs. Fortunately it was still way to early for morning class so she decided to go take a shower and change into clean clothes in the locker room.
After half an hour one of the cleaning ladies came in and asked if she will be finished soon so she can clean the place before the students come. Receiving no answer she goes in slowly chanting Ivanas name clearly hearing the shower running. Curious she peeks her head and screams loudly making her almost faint.
Hearing the scream echo thru the building the teachers and cleaning ladies that came earlier ran towards the sound and found the lady on the ground shaking, clearly in shock, and Ivana in the shower hanging by the metal bar (that connected the two walls where a curtain would usually be) with a rope around her neck. To this day no one knows if she did it herself or someone else.
Now I used to be like nahh thats fake trying to scare little kids away plus if you google her death she died normally nothing dramatic like this story. But when I asked my great grandmother about her( they used to go to school at the same time but weren’t in the same grade) she would always act a bit weirdly idk how to explain it. She told me that Ivana was deeply a troubled child and nothing more on the matter.
My grandmother( a literature and history teacher) refused to teach at that school not because of the story it was simply just because she heard that new teachers in their first three years of teaching there experience really bad luck (ivana died on her second year as being a headmaster at the school). She was also pregnant during that time so didn’t want to jinx her baby(my dad lol).
Years passed and both my dad and his older brother attended that school, at that time it was already named after Ivana. My dad also told me about the story later saying its like a legend but was weirded out by the fact that they shut down the water supply in the showers so no one can use them. girls in his class would start freaking out cuz they would find random wet footprints near the shower, sometimes chunks of hair clogged in the drain still wet not knowing how tf it got there.
Fast forward to present day. My older cousin gave birth like 10 years ago to a girl. Her daughter attends that school (btw my uncle(dads older brother), my dad, my cousin (oldest son), his sister (a few years younger than him), my sister (6 yrs older than me) and me went all to that school (basically a lot of generations)) and is currently in the fifth grade.
One day she came home (I was visiting) and told us about the construction they are doing. We askee what are they building and she answered oh no they are tearing down the girls locker room cuz of a bad smell near the showers.
I looked at my cousin we both knew damn well after all those years of random shit happening with that shower this can’t also be a coincidence. And her being a firm believer in the paranormal she was hundred percent sure that something isn’t right and thay the story is true but they are trying to hide it as best as they can.
There isn’t anything specific I can add to the story I might if I ask my family around again about the whole situation and give an update but yeah.
If you Google abour her death and her you deff won’t find anything abour the shower but you can see how the school looks.
Bonus: my uncle joked saying that Ivana purposefully made the students draw her characters on the walls to act as a barrier for her not to escape or even as a medium to keep her there because she was obsessed about being a headmaster/teacher. She probably even knew she was going to die that day, thats why the painting project started two years before her death and ended the same day she was found in the showers.
P.s. Sorry If I have any spelling or grammar errors, English isn’t my mother language