"Then my father was appointed director, but he returned with bad health and he always used to say: 'I slept on the third plank of the bunk bed where the moisture condensed', and he came back with asthma. He had severe asthma, so he went into early retirement at the age of 55. Communist leader Mr. Laga took over after him. I was really glad about that. Until then, my mother had always been at home, and my father, despite being the director, bought her two goats. As the Jewish association Sion had a long garden that went up hill, it started where the association was and continued to this other drawn-out garden. So my dad managed to by the garden from the association even before the war. My mother would take the goats there and let them graze and she would bring grass. In short, a city child became, what can I say, a small farmer. And when my father retired, she joined the developing agricultural cooperative in 1955, and my father, an activist, became its first accountant. Himself a severe asthmatic, he set up the first chick brooders in that lovely room I mentioned earlier. Electric ones. So I remember as a seven or eight-year-old child that you could always hear a peep peep peep in our house, and chicks would hatch in our former living room, our nicest room intended for celebrations."
"The Dřevnice River started rising, it started raining and raining and raining. On July 6th, the mayor of Otrokovice called me and said, 'Please, you will have to evacuate because there is a danger that the Tlumačov dam could burst. Your house is below ground level and it could flood.' So I stayed there until the evening, we called some sponsors, and they came with some cars. The Children's Home offered us provisional accommodation, we slept on mats. The number of clients was 43, and we moved in, thinking that it would all pass and that we would move out again within a week. In the morning, a colleague from Zlín came and said, 'The Bahňák building is completely flooded. We can't see any of the ground floor kitchen, the water is up to the first floor.' So we went to see what it looked like on little boats, and I had to start looking for new accommodation. There was this recreational facility under the mountains here in Vizovice called ROH, so they moved us in there. We vegetated there for three months. My husband became a taxi driver. Every morning at six, he waited by the station with the car and drove the morning shift to work and the night shift to the bus. Then they gave us some other accommodation in Zlín, and I started building, reconstructing, and removing the flood damage. There was a greenhouse in the garden, and when we opened it, there were five carp, poor things, without water. Water was flowing from the first floor of the new building; the second floor was a bit higher, so it wasn't as bad there. The mayor of Otrokovice, Mr. Myšák, called me, he later became a councillor, governor, and he said to me then: 'Mrs. Eva, the town of Otrokovice is devastated. I can't give you any money, but the German Red Cross has contacted me, and ask me to point out someone, preferably working in social care, whom they could help. So I thought of you.'"
"This is Roman. And then I have another one, Davídek. When I started working there, I had an office, then it changed into Roman's room, and across the hall there were three rooms for clients with mental disabilities. There was an eleven-year-old Roma boy who had these episodes...he had been abused and taken away at the age of five. He had these states when he expressed his dissatisfaction by undressing, scratching himself, self-harming, and screaming terribly. I was sitting in the office and suddenly I heard him, so I went in there and said, 'Davídek, what's wrong?' He hardly spoke, so I said, 'Okay, come on. I'll get you some crayons and sit down.' And he got used to coming to my office. I started working there on September 1st. I had done an internship in England, and it motivated me to say, 'Girls, it's Christmas. I know it's not customary for us to take clients home. But I'm announcing this special event. Whoever feels they could make someone’s Christmas special by taking them home, will receive an extra bonus.' Four employees and I volunteered. I took David home. He's 37 now, he started coming to ours when he was eleven and this year was the 26th Christmas he spent with us."
Eva Ludvíčková was born on March 14, 1947 in Vizovice. Her father, Josef Weinstein, returned from the Terezín ghetto after the war with severe asthma which limited him both professionally and personally. He died prematurely at the age of 60. After graduating, Eva was only allowed to study within the field of agriculture, so she chose to study economics at the University of Agriculture, the subject closest to her favourite mathematics. During her studies, she got a summer job in England where she met Jiří, her husband, who was then a Czech language and history student and a future teacher. After graduation and marriage, she worked as an economist in agricultural organizations in Valašsko. In the 1990s, as a secretary at the Faculty of Technology, she was responsible for the construction of the building of the Faculty of Management in Zlín, and since 1995 she worked in the social sector. For thirteen years, she led the Domov NADĚJE (Home of HOPE), a home for mentally and physically disabled children and youth in Otrokovice. After the catastrophic floods of 1997, she managed to raise funds to repair and rebuild the Home. Her study experiences in England and the Netherlands motivated her to expand and innovate within social care in the Czech Republic. Even now, although Eva Ludvíčková is retired, she still collaborates with organizations caring for the disabled. She is also a consultant in the field of social services
Brother Jenda, grandmother Alžběta Čermáková, above, mother Eliška Weinsteinová with a doll she would sew during the war to have money to send parcels to Terezín and Auschwitz, Vizovice 1944
Brother Jenda, grandmother Alžběta Čermáková, above, mother Eliška Weinsteinová with a doll she would sew during the war to have money to send parcels to Terezín and Auschwitz, Vizovice 1944
Eva Ludvíčková (second from right) at the award ceremony of the Quality Award in Social Services in 2004 in the Upper House of the Czech Republic, Prague 2005
Eva Ludvíčková (second from right) at the award ceremony of the Quality Award in Social Services in 2004 in the Upper House of the Czech Republic, Prague 2005
