Nikola Tesla – the man and his mother

Tesla was born at midnight between July 9 and 10, in 1856, 4th of 5 children and spent his childhood in the area that became Yugoslavia after WWI. His father was a Serbian Orthodox Minister and his mother a traditional housewife. He spoke very highly of his mother, and credited his photographic memory and inventive genius to her.

He wrote this about his mother, Georgina Đuka Tesla, (who, by this very description would be considered gifted):

An inventor of the first order and would, I believe, have achieved great things had she not been so remote from modern life and its multifold opportunities. She invented and constructed all kinds of tools and devices and wove the finest designs from thread which was spun by her. She even planted the seeds, raised the plants, and separated the fibers herself. She worked indefatigably, from break of day till late at night, and most of the wearing apparel and furnishings of the home was the product of her hands

April, 4th 1892: Tesla’s Mother Dies

Tesla rushed to his mother’s side as she lay dying, arriving from Paris hours before her death. Her last words to him were: “You’ve arrived, Nidžo, my pride.” Tesla’s mother died on the Easter Sunday at one o’clock in the morning and was buried later that day beside her husband at the Jasikovac cemetery in Divoselo, Croatia. After her death, Tesla fell ill. He spent two to three weeks recuperating in Gospić and the village of Tomingaj near Gračac, a village in the southern part of Lika, Croatia, his mother’s birthplace.

Resource:

Tesla Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney

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