photographed in her appartment in Tirana

„They put me in a van and sent me to Lushnja. In Savër, all the exiles were there with their families, but I was alone.“

Born on October 19, 1944, in Tirana, Valbona (Çoku) Mirakaj is the daughter of Mentor Çoku, known for his nationalist and anti-communist stance. Her mother, Zenie Resuli, came from a wealthy family. When Valbona was just a month old, her father fled to Italy in 1944 to escape communist persecution, while her sick mother went to Thessaloniki for treatment with the help of Nako Spiru (a high-ranking party official later declared a traitor), ultimately remaining outside Albania.

Valbona never met her mother. She lived with her maternal relatives until the age of 16, when she was informed that she would be exiled for 30 years to  Savër, Lushnja. In Savër, she was sheltered by some family acquaintances. During her internment, she met Sokol, who had been living in the camp since the age of two. At 20 years old, Valbona and Sokol married, and raised three children while in internment.

She describes the period of internment as extremely difficult, particularly the agricultural labor. After the fall of the regime in 1990, Valbona and her son traveled to Italy, where she met her father for the first time.