I wouldn’t want to spend a day in my father’s shoes as a private farmer
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František Coufal was born on 8 June 1937 in Olomouc as the youngest of three children to parents Ludmila and František Coufal. His mother Ludmila, née Vajdová, came from Černovír, from an agricultural, religious family. Her father, a trained locksmith, worked in steelworks. After their marriage, the couple started farming in Černovír. He lived through the local war events and the liberation of Černovír, during which their house was damaged. From 1956 to 1958 he served his military service in Slovakia, but due to the uprising in Hungary in 1956 his service was extended by half a year. After the war, he trained as a metalworker at the apprenticeship school of the labour reserves in Olomouc. He then worked in the TOZ company and then for most of his life in the Černovír Farmakon. The family was affected by collectivisation, in 1957 they joined a unified agricultural cooperative (JZD) and were left with only small fields. In 1962 František Coufal married Miloslava Hubáčková. Two children, František and Anna, were born from the marriage. Later the couple separated. Due to his health problems, František Coufal took early disability retirement. The family house at number 20, where he moved after his divorce, was flooded in 1997 and part of it had to be demolished. František Coufal then moved to the home for the elderly in Olomouc-Chválkovice, where he was living at the time of filming, in 2023.
