During the war we risked our lives, under the communists we were provoked by State Security
Božena Šálová, née Rusková, was born on 11 April 1939 in Zlín into the family of the gamekeeper Jindřich Rusk and his wife Božena. She had a sister Maria, ten years older. She grew up in a homestead in the village of Vlčková, where her family cooperated with the partisans during the Second World War, especially with the Secret Military and Civilian Organisation (TVCO), which gradually developed into the intelligence service of the partisan detachment of the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade of Jan Žižka, and also cooperated with the Clay paratroopers. She spent her childhood in fear of the Gestapo and constant raids. After the war, the family faced persecution by the communist regime for their resistance activities during the war. Božena Šálová attended school in Vlčková and later in Kašava. Despite her good school results, she did not get to the matriculation course. She graduated from a two-year economic school and started working as a secretary in a bank. She graduated in 1961 thanks to three years of evening studies while working. In the same year she married a colleague, Jaroslav Šala, with whom she raised three children. The family moved to Zlín (then Gottwaldov), where Božena Šálová continued to work in the bank, eventually reaching the position of chief controller. In 1994 she retired and after her mother‘s death in 2000 she moved back to Kašava, where she still lives today. In 1962 the Ruskas joined the JZD (Unified agriculture cooperative), and to this day they have not resolved land ownership with the municipality.