Women's Portraits

Olga Jeníková

An eighty-six-year old exceptional woman, although she does not consider herself exceptional. The whole period in which she has lived has been exceptional. Her big family filled her life with love and respect. She has an exceptional soul, and to meet her is joy and gift. How noble and touching beauty consists in simplicity.

My childhood as the brightest part of my life

 My ancestors came to Bohemia in the 18^th century from the German countries as mercenaries, soldiers of fortune or junkers. My maiden name was Jungr. My ancestors settled in the most fertile part of the Czech country – at the Labe River. As they were industrious, honest and provident, they soon owned large lands and woods passed down from generation to generation. In the fifth generation, my grandfather inherited the big property and my father after him.

I remember my childhood as the brightest part of my life. I had three older brothers. Our house was beautiful, big, with modern furniture, panelled with warm brown wood and with a beautiful garden. A big farmstead and a lot of animals offered never ending joys and adventures to us, the children. Our parents were very severe with us; we had to get up very early to help in the farm.

            We were brought up to love nature and animals, to respect human work, to be honest and responsible. My nicest memories are linked to the “music morning performances” organized regularly in our house, to which a lot of guests came to see us from Prague. My mother played piano excellently; one of my brothers played violin and my father was patron of the arts. I ended junior high school with only A’s.

I was inquiring and talented, and so my parents sent me to Switzerland to a lyceum to learn German and French. As it was usual at that time, girls and women had the task to prepare to the role of a good mother and housekeeper and to marry well. The World War II began. My parents wanted to send me to a safe place.

Life after the war

After the war, communists came to power in my country and the darkest time came for me, my family and all of our relatives and friends. We had to leave our house and the place where I had grown up. We were allowed to take only duvets and pillows and the most necessary things. We had to leave the country on a hay wagon. It was very painful to us that people to whom we had given subsistence and work and whom we always had treated well condemned us.

As my father was a modern and enlightened man, he had become the mayor of the village. He was one of the first engineers-agronomists in our country. The new people’s government was afraid of him to influence the people. They moved us far from our native region, to deep forests, so that nobody could visit us. Our father was the one who suffered the most. He often went to “his” village in the night because he could not stand the homesickness. Our beginnings were difficult, but as we were used not to yield to troubles, we slowly get used to it and conformed ourselves.

Due to my origin, it was not in the interest of the republic for me to get any education. I could not study at any school. I soon married Architect Jeník and we moved to Prague. We had 3 children. I was happy but it soon came out that my happiness would not last long. My husband owned a small factory for bathroom equipment, inherited from his parents. The factory was confiscated and my husband condemned to prison for 10 years. The process was fabricated. He was accused of having given shelter to an American spy. I stayed completely alone and without funds, with my three children and my old mother. We moved outside Prague. I bought a knitting machine and learned to knit sweaters to get at least the essential funds to subsist us. Our family and our friends helped us a lot. It was a bad time.

My husband came back after eight years and he never talked about the time spent in prison. When we asked him, he always answered only: “I must not tell you anything, and you would not believe me anyway.” He died soon after returning from prison, of consequences of the troublesome prison conditions.

Life experience

My life confirmed me that moral and ethical upbringing from the family is more important than education or property. You must not be fascinated by suffering and lose the sense for good and beautiful things of life. But life has also its weight, and it is always great courage to accept the whole reality. In difficult moments, I was always helped by my belief in God, in which I had been brought up. That means, not yield to the burdensome side of life, to its dark mysteries, pains, sadness and shadows. You must accept even what is burdensome in life, take it and not avoid it. If I had not had belief, the weight of life could have broken me, bring me to bitterness or cynicism. Nothing of that happened. On the contrary. I enjoy each morning and I thank for each new day. Now I am experiencing a very happy period of life. I am not plagued by diseases, and I attribute it to right start from my childhood, to healthy food and work at fresh air.

Life after the Velvet Revolution

After the “Velvet Revolution” in 1989, our confiscated property was partly returned us, but in disastrous condition, everything was destroyed. We saw that we had to start from the beginning, to repair and save everything. Our decision required a fair amount of courage, work and money. Today one of my grandsons manages the farm and he is doing very well. I am happy that our family tradition has not ceased to exist.

My old age

Today I am surrounded by my grandchildren; I devote myself fully to them, teach them English and French and try to pass them love to life and respect to all creation. I do not engage myself socially, but I have a broad circle of friends whom I meet regularly. Now I catch up on the education I was not allowed. I graduated from Third Age’s University in Prague; I visit all kind of lectures, mainly on applied arts and philosophy. I have also learn to use the Internet in order to have contacts with my grandchildren who live all over the world. When my body allows it, I like to exercise and go to hiking trips.

And in conclusion

Hope, belief and love, this “three-strand cord is the only thing we can catch in order not to succumb to vertigo when life shows us something God’s servant Job saw. God is what usually is hidden more deeply than we can think...”

Dagmar Vondrovicová