When the kids were in trouble or things weren’t going well, I kept dreaming about the bombing
Marie Krycnerová was born in Prague on 25 June 1933. As a young child, she witnessed the air raids on Prague in February 1945, which left a lasting mark on her. She wanted to become a teacher from an early age, but she was expelled from the Prague Faculty of Education after she refused to join the Youth Union. She then taught in the Karlovy Vary region while studying at the Faculty of Education in Plzeň. In August 1968, she and her husband were in Yugoslavia and coming back home on 20 August. During the initial days of the invasion she experienced an incident with a Soviet soldier. On 17 November 1989, she accidentally joined a demonstration heading from Vyšehrad to Národní třída, but escaped the police beating. After 1989, she travelled extensively and met Meda Mládková, with whom she lived in America for some time, helping her with household chores.