It was good living here.
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Vasiliki Michailidu was born on the 20th of September 1934 in the northern Greek village of Rizochori. She left Greece together with her siblings in 1948, and after a short stay at an unknown Yugoslavian monastery and in Bulkes, she was taken in a transport to the children’s home in Sobotín near Šumperk. In 1951 she started studies at a vocational school in Chotěboř. After graduating, she moved to her mother in Karviné. In 1953 she met her future husband in the so-called Greek Block in Karviné (a block of flats in a house with Greek inhabitants only). Most of her family returned to Greece. She and her husband decided to stay in Czechoslovakia because of their sons and also for financial reasons. In 1990 they both accepted Czech citizenship. The Michailidises speak both Czech and Pontic [a Greek dialect] at home. They still uphold Greek traditions, especially keeping to Greek cuisine, although through their sons who have married Czech women, a strong Czech influence is visible.
