Stepan Neuman with his wife Adel Neuman

This is me, Stepan Neuman, and my wife Adel near our house. We had this photo taken at the request of my younger brother Frantisek. This photo was taken in Uzhgorod in 1990.

I also work in the Hesed [42] of Uzhgorod, which was established in 1999. I am an instructor for tourism, mountaineering and skiing in Hesed. We go to the mountains in winter and in summer.

I know that I need to be healthy to do this and I try to keep healthy. Every morning I do exercises from 5 to 7am. I lift weights, go jogging and do push-ups. I have done it for many years. There has to be a system. I went skiing, when I was a child and now I go skiing too. My wife is also good at mountain skiing. I’ve taken the first place in slalom in my age group of over 60.

Of course, mountain skiing is expensive. We have no money for it and so I went to work at the mountain base on the Shcherbin Mountain. I install and repair equipment and do its maintenance. I do not get paid for this work, but I have a room with two beds and a bathroom, mountain skiing equipment and I can use the cable-car for free.

I believe that the most important for keeping in good health is a kind surrounding, a nice loving wife. One has to learn to enjoy it, avoid conflicts and make compromises. We often do not forgive our close ones for what we wouldn’t notice in people with whom we are not in such close relationships. A person needs many things: a wife, children, family and friends, a good place to live, a good book… One needs to enjoy the nature, read the books that one is interested in, listen to good music. This all makes the joys of our life.

There is not just joy. There is no joy where there has been no sadness. Everything has to be and then you will know the price of good things. If you stay at home all the time, you stop realizing how good it is at home, but when you return home cold and tired, you foretaste how good it is to come home. And you foretaste a good dinner that your wife has cooked for you and an evening with a book. Only when you know the good and the bad you can learn to appreciate the good. You also need to meet bad people in life, then you will appreciate good people and be happy to have had the opportunity to meet them.

Everything has to be in life. You cannot only wish for happiness, or you will not appreciate it. May there be everything in life, but more good. And also, we need to save our earth. We need not fight, we need to unite to save our little earth, so that we can all live on it.