I lived through the war and the occupation
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Vlasta Navrátilová, née Slámová, was born on 9 May 1934 in Švábenice in the Vyškov region as the third of five children. When she was seven years old, her father died and her mother found a new partner, and two more sisters were born into the family. She witnessed local war events and the liberation of Švábenice in April 1945. After the war, the family moved to Horní Loděnice as part of the resettlement of areas vacated by the deported Germans. Vlasta finished middle school in Moravský Beroun and started a seamstress training in Rýmařov. In her first year she contracted tuberculosis and spent the next three years in hospital and sanatorium. In 1961 she married carpenter František Navrátil and the couple raised daughters Hana (1962) and Vlasta (1966). The witness and her husband followed the Prague Spring developments and the August 1968 invasion. They never joined the communist party. She worked as a janitor and assistant teacher in a kindergarten most of her life and loved working with children. She retired in 1989. When her husband died, she moved to Šternberk to be closer to her daughter. In 2025, she lived in the local home for the elderly.
