Libuse Brodova

This is my wife, Libuse Brodova, nee Kvasnickova.

The photograph is from the year 1958, from a time when we had already been married for four years and we had a little daughter, Sarka.

I met Libuse during my studies, in 1952. She was three years younger than me and came from Moravia.

We met at the school residence in Opletalova Street, where I used to go see my friends, to hold various parties or rehearsed all sorts of entertaining theater performances.

We began to go out together, and after two years, while we were still in school, we were married.

Libuse was fairly politically conscious, more of proletarian origin, even though her father was a policeman, so not really a proletarian.

After the war their entire family devoted themselves to politics and joined the Communist party.

My wife was a committed member of the Czechoslovak Socialist Youth Movement. I think that she looked at me with some sort of detachment, because she could see that I wasn't as much a believer as she was, that in fact in private.

I was willing to tell so-called reactionary jokes, which was a huge insult, it wasn't allowed. But under my influence she became more civilized and very soon she turned into a normal girl.

We had a student wedding at the Old Town city hall; I had practically no money to pay for it. It was really student-style, it was on 30th April 1954 and right the next day we went to the May Day parade.

In those days we'd go parade through Prague, the entire school took part. It was a farce, we were supposed to celebrate 1st May, and our party and government, our leaders.

After the wedding we lived, together with Mrs. Kopska, in the apartment on Masna Street. In the fall, our daughter Sarka was born.

After finishing school my wife worked for some time in the archives, but they transferred her someplace else, she didn't seem trustworthy enough to them.

She began working for the Encyclopedic Institute of the Academy of Sciences, she participated in the creation of an encyclopedic dictionary.

After the occupation though, she lost this job as well, and her long career as a cleaning woman began.