Marcela Klenerová

"My grandfather Pošta, František Pošta, was a legionary who went with Masaryk's army to Vladivostok. They did anabasis. And then back home through Vladivostok. But in the meantime, my grandfather found a girl hiding at the station. She was my grandmother, who was from a rich Ukrainian family from Kiev, where they had several houses, they had a large estate, and the Bílýs had slaughtered them all. She was the only one in the family who hid under a table somewhere, took her jewels and ran to the station. She just wanted to get away from the horror she had experienced. The whole family was killed. And my grandfather, because my grandfather was very handsome. After him, my daddy was very goodlooking, they always called him: women, singing and wine. And then my grandfather married her. My grandmother was pregnant and that was with my dad. He was born in Shadrinsk in the Urals, on the way. And when they went back, Aunt Tamara was born. Dad's name was Mstislav. And before that, everyone told me: "You have a dad Mstislav, what a strange name."

"And then it was '68. And I was serving with my husband, he was on medical duty, I was on nursing duty. And the artificial kidney doctor came to me at two o'clock at night, there was an artificial kidney, the first one established in the country. He said to me, "Put the radio on the wire. I said, it's not playing anymore, at two o'clock. There was a time limit. And he said: No, there's something wrong, put it on, put it on now. And there it was, we're occupied by troops. Planes started flying over us, there was a big noise. I was on the phone to my husband and I said, "Mr. Assistant, get up, we're occupied. So I woke him up. We were all running from the whole clinic, it was three floors, I was serving on the first floor. We ran in front of the clinic and watched the planes and everything. Then we settled down in Karlák Park. It was all fucked up there because the Russians had settled there. I couldn't leave the hospital for a week because the girls who were on duty couldn't come. Then I worked there for a week straight, only lying down to rest when I could. That’s how we managed. It was a very difficult time."