A simple, decent life is the greatest heroism
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Ludmila Jahodová, née Perničková, was born on 13 October 1949 in Hranice na Moravě into the family of teachers Josef and Růžena Perničková. Her mother was a nun in her youth, but left the order before taking permanent vows and became a mathematics and physics teacher. Shortly after their marriage, the family moved to Jeseník, where Ludmila grew up in modest circumstances. She had a brother and a sister; her brother Josef later fell into gambling. In her childhood she attended a music school and a drama club, which resulted in a lifelong interest in music and theatre. In 1968 she graduated from secondary medical school and in the summer of that year she started working as a nurse at the psychiatric hospital in Bílá Voda. On the anniversary of the occupation on August 21, 1969, she arrived with a colleague wearing black clothes, which damaged her cadre profile. In 1970 she married Vlastimil Jahoda. Ludmila Jahodová describes the unique environment of the psychiatric hospital in Bílá Voda, but also the specific atmosphere of the northernmost village in the country, where 450 interned nuns lived. She worked as a nurse and head nurse in the 1970s and 1980s and in the late 1980s became involved in addiction treatment and therapeutic work. After 1990, she did a five-year psychotherapy training and became one of the key figures in the Fides therapeutic community in Bílá Voda, where she later founded a second therapeutic community, Phoenix, for clients with various different types of addictions. In addition to her work, she was involved in amateur theatre and leading a choir. She raised two children, and in 2025 she lived with her husband in Bílá Voda.
