Zdenka Adlerova

This is a picture of my mother, Zdenka Kohnova, taken in the 1910s. She was a very beautiful woman. She was born in 1900 in Protivin, graduated from business academy and then started working at the Fink chocolate factory in Ceske Budejovice, where she actually met my father - his sister-in-law was her employer. In 1920 they got married, and a year later my sister was born. I was born in 1926, that same year my father died, and my mother had to work very hard to support us. That's why Grandma Marie moved in with us, who actually took over our upbringing. Both of them definitely tried very hard to make up for the fact that my sister and I didn't have a father.

But once, when I was very small, I hurt them through my own carelessness. Once I saw a beggar on the Krumlov Bridge. For several subsequent nights, I woke up from a dream crying - I couldn't stand the thought of him and his sad life. Grandma and Mom tried to console me, but nothing helped. Then, one night I again woke and wept for the blind beggar. Mom and Grandma rushed over to me, but I was embarrassed to tell them that I was again weeping for him. And so I told a lie - I said that I was crying because I didn't have a daddy. It wasn't true, I never knew my dad, so I couldn't miss him, but I immediately realized from the sad look in their faces how sorry they were for it. Certainly they tried to do everything to make up for our losing our father. Back then I clearly realized what lying was, and swore that I'd never lie again.