Libuše Jahodová

"I was in the mountain school in the Mengus valley and that day I was leading an expedition for a test. It was the 21st of August, and it was freezing a bit at night, and as the rocks were frozen and then the sun was shining a lot, it looked so strange. There were a lot of planes flying over us, and when we came to the Vaha saddle where we could have a refreshment, everybody there was sad, and there was a voice on the radio saying, 'Yes, my friends, we are an occupied country.' We thought it was some kind of game on the radio, but unfortunately it wasn't a game. When we came back I said I wouldn't finish the course because I had to go home. I had three children at home and I couldn't stay. So the leader gave me a guide to take me to the station. There was nobody at the station, everywhere was quiet, and then when it got light there were banners everywhere. When I arrived in Liberec, I was almost ashamed to be walking with my backpack. I walked home, I stopped at work, it was almost embarrassing. Then it kind of came back. And now, on August 21 last year, I was with my youngest granddaughter in the square in Liberec, where there was this wooden tank, and I was telling her everything. So I didn't finish high school. My granddaughter Libuška, who was at the Olympics in Rio, tells me: 'See, grandma, if you had finished it, you wouldn't have had to bake buns and you could have trained us.'