You’ll get married and work in their fields. I was only 16 years old
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Antonie Draxelová (Draxel in Romanian), née Kalinová, was born on 8 August 1946 and grew up in the Czech village of Šumice in the Romanian Banat. Her parents owned a small farm and from childhood involved her in agricultural work. In nearby Putna, the Kalina family built a mill in 1933, which was nationalized by the Communist government after the coup in Romania, and her grandfather’s family moved to Šumice to join her family. In her birthplace, Antonie completed four grades and worked on the farm from that point on. At the age of 16, she married Josef Draxel and after the birth of her son, she managed to complete four years of Romanian school in the village of Lapušnik (Lăpușnicel). She used to go to the market to sell in Oršava, several dozen kilometres away. At the time of the building of Romanian socialism, the family paid compulsory agricultural supplies to the state. She worked on the farm all her life. After the overthrow of the communist regime in the country, the family regained ownership of the mill in Putna. At the time of filming (September 2023), Antonie Draxelová was living in Šumice.