Jaroslava Mendlová

"The peak of it was Maruška's funeral they guarded the place and didn't let anyone in, just the family. See, Maruška... she was studying in university and was taking a tram from Klárov, going to hand in her thesis. Since she was wearing this triband, like people did back then, a soldier gestured to her to take it off. She just didn't react or maybe made a little smirk. And he just shot her and left her there as she was. He just walked up to the tank - there were tanks there too - and had his snack, just like that. So, of course, some people ran there and called an ambulance and they took her to Pod Petřínem Hospital. But unfortunately, there was no help for her."

"One of my colleagues told me they were recruiting people for glider training at the Točná airfield near Prague, just outside Modřany. Since I had the opportunity to fly a glider with this colleague once and it blew me away, I thought, 'Well, if they're doing training, I'll give it a try.' So I became a glider pilot in no time... and then we went on to get motor aircraft licences. It's amazing because, one, you make amazing colleagues and you stay lifelong friends wherever you are in the world, and two, you gain so much perspective over all the injustices happening on the ground. You rely on yourself up there and have time to think without being disturbed by other stuff. So, because I was so good at it - and I was really good... For example, flying a glider, the motor airplane lifts the glider up to, say, a thousand meters altitude - and then you deal with the clouds and distance and what not. While some colleagues landed before the tugs did, I flew maybe fifty kilometres away, or I'd hang in the air for five hours. I was just terrific at it because I had this feel for it. Everybody let me do it when they saw my interest in it."