Dad was persuaded to join the party for a shot of licor. They also wanted him to register one of his daughters. Well, he signed me up.
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Jarmila Procházková was born on January 20, 1929 into a poor family from Chýně with six siblings. As a child, she recalls living in poverty, distressing housing, buying groceries on debt, and how their family situation became more complicated after their father’s death. She graduated from primary school in Chýně, and higher school in Hostivice. Due to the lack of family finances, she could not keep studying and had to start working, as did all her siblings. At the beginning of World War II, tanks passed through Chýně and planes landed at the nearby Ruzyně Airport, and her father had to build a shelter in the garden, in which the whole family was cramped during the raids. After the war with the rise of the Communist Party to power, her father joined the party by intercession in a pub and also enrolled his daughter Jarmila in it. The membership in the Party did not bother her too much, but only until her sister was refused to study, then, Jarmila handed over her membership book. She met her husband in the early 1950s and lived together until his death in 1990. Today, Jarmila lives in Zličín, Prague, and her great-granddaughter Lucie recorded her memories as part of the Stories of the 20th Century competition.
