As a physician, I would prescribe sauna to the miners. They did not want anything else
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Antonín Mikolášek was born on the 4th of August in 1927 in Sloupnice. His father, Antonín Mikolášek (1876 – 1958) was a physician and for many years, he served as an army physician and as a general practicioner in Dalmatia. His mother Matylda (1884 – 1952) was from an evangelical German family from Galizia. Antonín’s parents had six more children, Edita was born in 1905, Leopoldina in 1907, Vlasta in1909, Miroslav in 1911, Tusnelda in 1917, Adrian in 1921. Both brothers became evangelical priests and lived abroad. Antonín went to basic school in Sloupnice and in 1938, he enrolled secondary school in Litomyšl. He had asthma which lead to frequent absences and Antonín himself preferred football and hanging out with friends rather than school. In 1942, he had to leave the school due to Nazi restrictions – who had a grade 3 or worse in German was not allowed to study at a secondary school. Until the end of WWII, he thus studied at Teacher’s Institute in Chrudim and after the war ended, he returned to the secondary school from which he graduated. The war left deep scars on his soul. Several students from the school in Litomyšl were executed during the war. Antonín’s friend from Sloupnice, Marie Sedláčková, who had helped Antonín with his Latin and who was a brave resistance fighter, suffered a cruel end of her life as well. In 1953, Antonín graduated from the medical school. Then he worked as a general practicioner in Rýmařov, Karlova Studánka, Bruntál, Čelákovice, Pečky and Dolní Dobrouč. He lived a humble life as did his parents. He refused to join the Communist party. He firstly married Alena Mikulecká (1928–1966)in 1952 and they had three children together, who were born in 1953, 1956 and 1958 respectively. After Alena’s death, he married secondly in 1967. With his second wife, Věra Janíková, they had a daughter who was born in 1970 and they raised two children adopted in Věra’s previous marriage. One of witness’ long-time interest was sauna, even in 2022, he would contribute to a saunology journal from his home in Dolní Dobrouč. He died on July 9th, 2023.
