Ludmila Dvořáková

"Because his grandmother supported him to go to the priesthood, they allowed him [to study]. It was something back then when there was a priest in the family. He just dropped out and studied law school, so it didn't work out anyway. He had to make a lot of extra money to study, he was giving lessons. Then my folks said that all of Mum's dowry, when she married Dad, went to him to finish his education. He was aware of it, he was very devoted to us kids. He supported his brother. He couldn't hear and he was in an institution, so he paid for it all. He really cared. I have a memory of him. He would come in and he would have his head wrapped in sausages, that was something for us. We used to enjoy that, my folks wouldn't even buy us that. And back then, sausages were real sausages, it wasn't water like it is now. He used to bring us toys, books. He was always urging me to study. If he'd kept on pushing, I'd have turned out differently. He didn't have kids until later, so he would have taken me in. He was strict, I wouldn't have had it easy, but otherwise he was good."

"The beginnings in the cooperative farm were terribly difficult. When the cooperative started started, they took everything. The cows stayed with us, there was an empty barn next door, so they moved more cows in. My mother used to go to the fields and in the evenings she had to find fodder for them and cut the grass. That was before the cowshed was built. Then the cowshed was built and the farming started to change. Their earnings were better, they weren't so poor, they weren't so bad. Our mother was a hard worker, but she used to say that the way she had it in the cooperative farm, she would never want the fields back. It was a relief to her. She had been left alone to work. My dad was also supportive of getting the cooperative farm established. There were many people who didn't want to go there. I know our three neighbours were in favor. My uncle encouraged them - especially my dad."