Ladislav Fröde

“After they put him in prison and then let him out, I didn't see him for years. But maybe twenty years later, we were already Adventists back then, I walked across the square in Trutnov and all of a sudden there was this man rushing towards me. He threw his arms wide open and started hugging me, saying: 'You are Fröde, right?' And I said I was indeed. 'You saved my life'. And I said: 'But when?' He replied: 'Back at the school, as you refused to sign that statement they gave you.' I told him: 'But they sentenced you to six years anyway, for something else.' And he said: 'Sure, but that was nothing, they gave me just six years and I got hepatitis, so they let me out after just three years. But if they had succeeded, they could just hang me or sentence me to life. In the fifties, they were quite harsh as espionage was concerned, so I wouldn't get out this easily.' So he would just hug me, telling me how glad he was to see me. Then he reached retirement age while serving in Svoboda, I saw him on several occasions. He serviced my mother-in-law's burial, we met there, but we didn't talk much.'

“Originally, he had Poříčí parish and Chvaleč was just its subsidiary where he would go to celebrate a mass. If there was black ice in winter, there were no trains or buses going. So we would wait, it was supposed to start at half past ten, and he was nowhere to be seen. Then he would show up, we would head his motorbike. He had this old Zet 125 and he came all the way from Poříčí, and the terrain was quite rough, from Petříkovice to Chvalec, quite hilly, and he would come with his feet on the road, it was like he was skiing. He came to Chvaleč, he drove up to the church, and the soles on his boots were worn through, as the road was slippery so he had to use his legs to keep balance. But he came anyway, and I always admired him, this dutifulness of his. He wasn't rich, he had a sister, she was a domestic in Poříčí. She was always knitting those cardigans which she would give us on Christmas. So I kinda like him, I respected him, as he was honest in this matter.”