Don’t be afraid to communicate with us
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Otílie Jiříčková was born on 21 August 1935. Her family lived in Vejprnice near Pilsen. When she was one and a half years old, she lost her hearing during an illness. Her parents, mother Otílie and father Ludvík Kopřiva worked as clerks. When she was five years old, her parents placed her in an “institution for the deaf and mute” in Plzeň na Borech, and she went home on weekends. At the institution, they taught the deaf to read from the lips, but the witness is much closer to sign language. She stayed at the institute until she was fifteen. Then, she trained as a seamstress at a regular apprenticeship, the only profession offered to deaf girls. In 1955, she married. Her husband Stanislav was also deaf, she went to school with him, he was a trained letterer. Their daughter Milena was born in 1957, and two years later, their son Stanislav was born. Both of them are hearing, and their grandparents helped with their upbringing. After her maternity leave, she started working at Styl in Plzeň and worked there until her retirement. She regularly attends the Association of the Deaf in Pilsen, uses the services of sign language interpreters, and meets deaf women at the Women’s Club.
