It was noisy, it was ugly, we were all shaking
Marie Kovářová was born on July 12, 1933 in Hrádkov u Boskovic to a single mother Filoména Kučerová. At her grandfather František Kučera‘s wish, she had to go to a German school and live in a boarding school in nearby Boskovice. At the end of the war, she experienced unpleasant moments when fleeing German soldiers were shooting at her, heard the interrogation of prisoners and saw their execution from afar. After completing compulsory schooling, she graduated from the so-called JUK (One-Year Learning Course) and joined Jednota Boskovice. She married Jaroslav Kovář in 1954 and they had a son Jaroslav (1959). Her husband‘s eldest brother František emigrated to Canada in 1948, which caused problems for the whole family. In 1964, the Kovářs moved to Prostějov, where she joined the transport company ČSAD Prostějov as a price clerk and gradually worked her way up to head of foreign truck transport. She experienced the events of 1968 in Yugoslavia, where she spent an extra week with the other tour participants. While employed, she completed her studies, passed the matriculation exam, and after 1970 joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia because of her position in the company. The ABS (the Security Services Archive) has not preserved the file under registration no. 19754 Prostějov, category „D“ (confidant), cover name „Marie“. Apparently, due to her high position and contacts abroad, she was kept as a confidant without her knowing it. In 1983, she participated in a two-month internship in the Dutch port Rotterdam. After retiring in 1989, she moved back to her native Hrádkov, where she took care of her sick mother and later her husband. In 2022, she lived in her birth house with her son‘s family.