Have a broken umbrella? This Slovenian woman can fix it
While most people believe a broken umbrella means you have to buy a new one, umbrella repairer Marija Lah has spent her life proving them wrong. "Everything can be repaired! I believe I can repair 98 percent of all the umbrellas I get," the 56-year-old Slovenian says. While most umbrella repairers have closed shop as millions of broken, cheap umbrellas are tossed out each year around the world, Lah caters to a growing base of new customers who try to throw away less due to environmental concerns.
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00:00My name is Marija Lah and I am the only breeder in Ljubljana.
00:11In 1966, my father bought this space and started breeding in Ljubljana.
00:20In 1991, my father died of cancer and he couldn't work anymore.
00:28A nurse called me and told me that I needed an eye.
00:32A very big one, half a circle of course.
00:35She said, my dear, either you come to me or I close it.
00:38I said, you don't have to close it, you still have some money.
00:41I just sent her a note saying that I was illiterate and that I needed an eye.
00:46Every day, every day, every day.
00:49We worked together for 14 years.
00:52My father died when I was 17 years old.
00:57He showed me one thing every now and then.
01:01He was a hard worker, I would say.
01:04I was a very hard worker, I have to admit.
01:07But there was no more of that.
01:10But after 14 days, I came to work.
01:14I opened it, like every day.
01:16She said, you have to come to work,
01:18and I told her to go back somewhere.
01:21But as far as I knew, I was in some kind of dilemma.
01:25As if they were writing on my forehead,
01:27even though no one here knew that my father was illiterate.
01:30You will still be in debt, sir.
01:32You still have a lot of money, we need you,
01:34you can't close it, no, no, no.
01:36This space is yours, you don't have to pay for it.
01:39You will still be in debt.
01:41Every day, every day.
01:43I listened to her and I knew what to do.
01:46I said, wait, Maria,
01:48you can't finish the knowledge
01:50that no one else in Ljubljana has.
01:53And I stayed.
01:55The hardest thing is that every day
01:58new and new workers come to the market.
02:01Every new article is different
02:04from all the other articles.
02:06Because every worker can be different,
02:09if they can't make it to the market.
02:11And I have to learn everything.
02:13I mean, it's nice in its own way,
02:15but it's also demanding,
02:17because sometimes you turn the fabric,
02:19you fold it, you put it together,
02:21you think about how to fix a certain thing,
02:24because you have to learn.
02:26A high-quality fabric
02:28wouldn't have as many cowl elements
02:32and the tips wouldn't be a little stronger.
02:36It's really hard to show this.
02:38For example, your fabric, the wool fabric,
02:41has such excellent tips.
02:45It's knitted, it's patented,
02:47it's transferred from left to right.
02:50These are the tips that are
02:52for one generation and then for three.
02:57Everything can be fixed.
02:59I fix something in 98 percent.