Helena Pelnářová

* 1949

  • “Things went quickly with the husband. We met twice, three times, then I left school, I didn’t attend eleventh class. Then he told me ‘Look here, we have to pick a road. Either you want me, or I’ll go find another.’ So we made plans. We went to pile up grain at my second cousin’s and he told me ‘If you want, go home to get your ID card and in the evening we’ll leave for my place.’ So that’s what we did. We piled up grain the whole day, that was 9 September and in the evening I went to his place and since then I’ve been with him.”

  • “In Rovensko we mostly worked the fields. My parents were working in the fields, so that when I came home from school I had to take the cows to pasture and do my homework. We didn’t have any other income, except that Dad was a sanitary worker, so we had savings, some money coming in, but not a lot. We sold cows. I waked with my mother to the Božovice cow market. When we had a cow to sell, we left on Saturday and on Sunday was the cattle market. We walked the cow 30 kilometres to the market. When we sold, it was good. When we didn’t, we walked it back.”

  • “Dad didn’t want to show me his practice, but I stole it from him. I saw how Dad was doing things. I gave my first injection to my father-in-law, I also learned to do intravenous injections. When somebody needed, I would inject them, like I gave my father-in-law galca gluconic. That was to strengthen him up. He was ill, so I gave him that and learned it on my own. That was my gift. And teeth as well, I pulled out my own three teeth with pliers. I later got some forceps from my dad, but Iveta was the dentist in Rovensko. She gave me another three forceps. I’ve pulled so many teeth, more than the hairs on my head.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Eibentál, 08.09.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 01:57:33
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

God gave her the gift to become a nurse in remote Rovensko

Pamětnice za svobodna, Rovensko, 1965
Pamětnice za svobodna, Rovensko, 1965
photo: archiv pamětníka

Helena Pelnářová, née Holečková, was born on 8 February 1949 in the Czech village of Rovensko (Ravensca) in Romanian Banat. Her ancestors were said to have come here in the 1920s from Zdice na Berounsku. The witness’s parents were called Jan and Veronika Holeček and kept a small farm as their means of subsistence. After Helena’s birth, her father worked in the village as a nurse, because the village lay in a remote location, far from any hospital facilities. Although it was against his wishes, his daughter adopted his knowledge and experience and continued to educate herself. In Rovensko she completed four grades of school and then moved to the Romanian school in Božovice, where she stayed at the boarding school. But she did not complete her last, 11th class, because she decided to run away from home, eloping with a boy from the village. At the time of her wedding she was seventeen years old and together they raised two sons. She worked on the farm, but also 12 years as a forestry worker and provided various forms of healthcare to the locals. Both of her sons are residing permanently in Bohemia with their families, where the witness also lived from 2004, working under several Czech employers in West Bohemia. In 2008, she returned to Rovensko to be with her husband and two years later she was baptised, joining the Unity of the Brethren Baptists. At time of recording she was still living in Rovensko (September 2022).