- Here’s a man who clearly lives by the principle of “better safe than sorry.”
Cases of COVID-19 infections are surging again, and the CDC is urging everyone who can do so to get vaccinated. But, of course, there are people pushing back — some say the situation is not so bad that they need a vaccine.
But no matter what politicians or self-professed medical experts on YouTube say, it’s bad. Bad enough that a Serbian man who’s lived in near-total isolation for years has decided to get the jab.
Panta Petrovic, 70, has taken social distancing to its logical extreme. Nearly 20 years ago, he decided he’d had enough of modern life and moved into a remote forest cave on the Stara Planina mountain.
Recently, he made a rare visit to his hometown of Pirot in southeastern Serbia. There, Petrovic found out that there’s a bit of a pandemic going on.
Despite living far, far away from the nearest human being — much farther than the six-foot distancing recommendation — the hermit decided he wasn’t going to take any risks. As soon as vaccines became available, he crawled out of his cave once more to get one.
“[The virus] does not pick. It will come here, to my cave, too,” Petrovic told the AFP news agency.
Maybe living on his own in the woods has taught him to appreciate human mortality. When you’re alone, you’ll do anything to survive, we suppose.
The Life of a Hermit
In many ways, Petrovic’s home cave makes for an ideal quarantine site. If nothing else, its forbidding location will keep any possible virus carriers away.
The tiny hole sits on top of an extremely steep cliff. It can only be reached by climbing the side of the mountain, a feat that the elderly man does with remarkable ease.
In true hermit fashion, there are no luxuries inside Petrovic’s cave. The amenities of his home include a metal cooking pot, some scavenged utensils, a couple of rickety wooden tables and benches, a hay pile for sleeping, and a rusted bathtub he uses as a toilet.
Petrovic sustains himself mostly by eating wild mushrooms and fish he catches from a nearby creek. When he feels like treating himself to something fancier, he’ll hike to Pirot to rummage through trash cans.
A Friend to Animals
He might be a hermit, but Petrovic is by no means lonely. He has a small farm’s worth of animals to keep him company.
His little zoo includes multiple goats, a flock of chickens, and around 30 dogs and cats. And then there’s Mara — a wild boar and Petrovic’s dearest companion.
The hermit discovered Mara eight years ago as a helpless piglet who had gotten tangled in some bushes. He brought the young boar with him to his cave and nursed her back to health by bottle-feeding her milk.
Now, Mara weighs more than 400 pounds and spends her days rolling around in the creek and eating apples from Petrovic’s hand.
“She means everything to me, I love her and she listens to me. There is no money that can buy such a thing. A true pet,” the hermit said.
He used to let the animals roam freely around his cave, but at one point, wolves killed some of them. Since then, Petrovic has constructed a ramshackle shelter for them near Pirot to keep them safe.
He has also constructed a pigeon loft in Pirot. The man feeds the birds bread he finds while scavenging through trash containers.
Petrovic receives welfare and uses his money to buy supplies for the animals. He also received donations from kind-hearted locals.
‘Money is Cursed’
When he could still stomach civilization, Petrovic worked as a black market laborer, both in Serbia and elsewhere in Europe. He has been married several times, but none of his relationships would last.
Eventually, he realized that modern life just wasn’t meant for him. He could only find peace when he was alone in nature.
“I was not free in the city. There is always someone in your way — you either argue with your wife, neighbors, or the police,” the hermit mused.
“Here, nobody is hassling me,” he added with a smile.
The biggest issue Petrovic has is with money. If he had to name one great evil in world, that would be it.
“Money is cursed, it spoils people. I think nothing can corrupt a human like money,” Petrovic declared.
When he rejected modernity and returned to the woods, Petrovic donated all his money to the local community. The donation funded the construction of three small bridges in Pirot.
Doctor-administered, Hermit-approved
When getting his vaccination, Petrovic was told that some people are refusing to get the jab for whatever reason. For his part, the man says he “doesn’t understand the fuss.”
He might be a hermit that scorns civilization, but Petrovic still believes in modern medicine. He said that he puts his faith in medicine that aims to eradicate disease from the world.
“I want to get all three doses, including the extra one,” the old hermit said, even though his chances of catching the virus in his cave are practically nonexistent.
“I urge every citizen to get vaccinated, every single one of them,” he added.