When they took the cows away from us, my mother ran to cry to our backyard
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Helena Dufková, née Dufková, was born on March 10, 1936 in Hluk u Uherského Hradiště as the middle of three children to Jan and Františka Dufková. Her mother had a small farm, her father commuted to work in Zlín, where he worked at the company Baťa. The mother was strongly religious and raised her children in this spirit, the father was a member of the local Orel jednota. Helena also went to Orel as a child. After the communists came to power, the family’s farm was confiscated as part of collectivization, their cows were taken away and the fields were transferred to the state farm. At that time, her father was already working at the Autopal factory in Hluk. In order for the children to go to school, he went to work in the Ostrava mines. Helena Dufková graduated from a high school of nursing, majoring in midwifery. She finished her studies with a high school diploma in 1954. In 1953, the family lost their savings intended for the children’s studies during the currency reform. A few months before graduation, as a newly eighteen-year-old, she married Jaroslav Dufka, who later worked at Stavoprojekt Gottwaldov. They raised two children together. Helena Dufková worked as a midwife, a pediatrician’s nurse in Zlín (Gottwaldov), a senior nurse in a home for the elderly in Lukov and in the Burešov home. In 2022, she lived in Zlín.
