Her friend did not survive the air raid
Download image
Hana Ryvolová, née Melzerová was born on the 13th of May 1936. She spent the period of Protectorate in Holešovice in Prague not far away from the Bubny train station. The family was doing well during the World War II thanks to a go-ahead dad Karel Melzer who was able to take care of them at all times. She lost her friend Helena Pelcová during the air raids of alliance. When she was nine years old, she helped to build barricades in Holešovice by carrying paving stones. Her father took the rebels to the radio building by van. He lost his company after February 1948. She did not feel limited as a daughter of an entrepreneur, possibly also because she did not aspire to study at university. She trained to become a confectioner and she did the job her whole life. Her husband, a confectioner Karel Ryvola grew up in a traditional confectionery family and the recipes of sweets that had been until recently sold in the U Veletrhu cake shop came from the famous Berger sweetshop where her father-in-law had been trained. She and her husband worked in a cafeteria opposite to Trade Fair Palace, the company transformed into a cake shop after 1969. She, except of the memories of the World War II, did not perceive the political twists during the communist regime too much, she was mainly focused on her work and family. Hana Ryvolová run the cake shop in Holešovice until 2020 when she had to close it down due to the coronavirus crisis.
