Perth Voice Interactive

FORTY-THREE years ago Mark Kraljevich lost his precious watch on a Swan River cruise during a brawl between arts and architecture uni students.

Bayswater local Greg Smith was on board and had such a good time he only remembers one thing about the quarrelsome night: “I remember it was the arts students’ fault,” the town planner bitterly recalls. “That’s the only thing I can remember clearly.”
Mr Kraljevich survived the brawl but lost the Longine watch, a fine timepiece and one of the few items he had to remember his grandmother by.

These days he runs the Jila Gallery Cafe in Derby but is in Perth for medical treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Understandably he’s been feeling down in the dumps.

While here he got to chatting with old friends about the good old days and rowdy river cruises. Although they weren’t acquaintances at the time, when he mentioned the lost watch, a distant and hazy memory dawned on Mr Smith. He rifled through his drawers and pulled out the timepiece, still ticking, and returned it to Mr Kraljevich.

“It still worked when I got it, 43 years later,” Mr Kraljevich beams. “It’d be a good ad for Longine.” He’s taken it as a good omen and is feeling a million bucks. “This really was such an inspiring thing.” Friends say he’s been smiling the whole week: “If only we took a photo before of your face, the change was wonderful.”

by DAVID BELL