I look to the future with hope
Stáhnout obrázek
Jaroslav Ladýř was born on 12 December 1952 in the village of Žihle near Pilsen. His grandfather Alois Ladýř came there in the 1920s from Kolín to work. His father, also Jaroslav, was born there in 1927. In 1949 he married Emilia Buriánová from Horní Žďár. His father worked in Žihle at the sawmill. In 1954 he got a job at ČSAD (Czechoslovak Automobile Transport) Karlovy Vary, and so the young family moved. In the same year little Jaroslav was baptized. From Karlovy Vary he went every holiday to his grandfather and grandmother in Nemanice. Grandfather Alois Ladýř moved to a displaced village five kilometres from the western border just after the war. He worked there as a blacksmith, he and his grandmother also kept small animals, and the witness spent unforgettable holidays with them as a child. He and the village boys roamed the surrounding woods and abandoned farmsteads in a heavily guarded restricted zone. One day they were caught and arrested by the Border Guard. The whole family also gathered at Grandma and Grandpa‘s house every year at Christmas. In the village with the old mill and forge near Domažlice, sometimes so much snow fell that they could not get out for three days. After his apprenticeship at the glove-making apprenticeship in Horní Žďár, Jaroslav enlisted in the army in Michalovce. Grandfather died, grandmother too. When he returned, the family was no longer interested in the abandoned forge. It was abandoned and finally demolished. Shortly after the war, Jaroslav Ladýř met a girl named Zuzana, with whom he used to go to first class. They married in 1974 and had two children, a son Dan and a daughter Jana. During his lifetime, he had several jobs. He was lucky to have great colleagues and a good working environment. He worked at ČSAD Karlovy Vary, then at the Development of Civil Engineering KV, at the Spa House, and finally he landed at the newly established branch of Czech Radio in Karlovy Vary. He fondly recalls his apprenticeship years, when he and his courageous teacher travelled across the republic on trams under the banner of the SSM. In spite of all the happiness, he had one great unexpected pain in his life, when his beloved wife died of cancer a few years ago. In 2024, he was living in Karlovy Vary.
