Věra Uhrovičová

“I was expecting at the time. The director came along and said: ‘Do your business in the morning, we don’t know what’ll happen, they might come back [the soldiers], so you might have to be closed away.’ So we went there, but I could feel I was surely going into labour. Back then we didn’t go to the maternity ward, we had one old granny here, so we called for her and she said: ‘Oh, that’s not quite coming yet,’ so I went down into the cellar to sleep. But then it was four in the morning and I felt it was probably coming. So we went back up into the house, and the granny, the midwife, said: ‘If you need me, I’ll be so and so...’ She had one other pregnant mum here, ‘so I’ll be with her.’ So my husband set off there, but she wasn’t to be found. So he ran all over the village looking for her, and then she... she had simply gone to hide in a cellar somewhere as well, so we didn’t know about her. And it was my time; we had one aunt here who also helped with the births, and she kind of knew about it, so she came by. I had a medical book ready, and I advised them what they should do. Well, and when the granny came along, the baby was already born.”

“My parents were irreligious. When Dad returned from the war, he joined the church. Back then there was this trend of people being against the Roman Church. That’s also why the Czechoslovak Church was established, and the idea was that we’re taking our own path, away from Rome. The church was active right here in Hodonín, they had a church there as well, and the parson would come here.”