Marie Lapišová

"Then times passed and in March 1990, they announced there will be re-auditioning for the head doctor and the head nurses, because all had to resign as they were, including the director, all together in the (communist) party, all were party leaders, so they had to step down. These auditions were first made for the head doctor. You know how to make auditions, don´t you? There is six or seven people. You know that. The candidates were three or four, and the committee selected the best of the best and the most voted. Then, when the head doctors were done with, they selected the nurses. It was the auditioning procedure. The new head doctor came to see me to ask, if I wanted to be the senior/head sister. I did not want that very much, because the job included sixty people to supervise. That's what I said ... he's just a doctor, I'm the other staff. I said, ´Well, that's terrible, I do not know if I dare it.´ Well, then everyone was backing me up at the department and I finally went for the audition. There were three adepts. Well, so they chose me."

"It was not easy, because in the Ostrava region, there are tougher people. How hard work is, so the people are alike, well of course there are also kind of softer, more loving, I take it as I got to know it. They are more strenuous with work. Even before I got my job, it took me a month to get it, and it was at the internal clinic again, even though my husband had an uncle, who helped me a little, otherwise I would not even have got it at all. Well, so I felt quite unhappy there as they spoke with a strong accent in Ostrava, and that was a quite a bit different. I tell you an example: I came to the afternoon shift and the patient, a real Ostrava man, said he wanted ´gorsky´tea. So I thought, "Well, hot." What you would think, just hot. So I brought a warm tea. He nearly poured it at my feet. And the other patient told me he wanted bitter tea as he was a diabetic."