“Two soldiers came once at night. They shockingly banged at the door and my grandpa opened. They searched everybody´s hands immediately, and said in Russian: ʻDavaj časy, davaj časy,ʼ what meant that all who wore watches on their hands were deprived of them. They searched the tables and took everything they liked. As they opened the wardrobes, beneath the underwear they found a bottle. My mom stood next to the wardrobe. He took the bottle and handed it to my mom. ʻDrink!ʼ He told her as he was afraid it might have been some poison. You know, in one hand he held a gun and in the second the bottle. So he forced her to drink it, to try, and as she did, he grabbed it under his arm.”
“Once the partisans came. It was winter. We really hosted the partisans. And my grandpa, may the Lord reward him for everything, he saw them through such a big window and said: ʻYou know what, gentlemen, come and hide quickly, because I can see Germans coming from the other side.ʼ And what now? So he let them come in through the kitchen above the pantry, from where he let down a big ladder for them to run away. Imagine that Germans came, and thanks to God´s providence, it started snowing so heavily that the snow covered all the footsteps and nothing could be seen. That´s how God protected us, because otherwise you know what could have happened.”
Štefánia Mišaniová was born on October 13, 1929 in Valaská Belá. In her home village she experienced times of the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising as well as following battles between partisans and German troops. After the front´s crossing and the end of the war she left to study at the Pedagogical Institute in Nitra. Here she decided to enter the religious order of Vincentian Sisters of Charity, and gained her first experiences with the upcoming new regime. After she became a nun and received the religious name Honória, related to the occurring events, she was transferred to Trenčín, where she worked as a nurse. In August 1956 the Vincentian Sisters had to leave from this therapeutic institution and were deported to different places in Bohemia. For a short time, sister Honória got to Ružomberok, from where she applied to leave to sisters in Smečno. There in an old people´s home she worked for twelve years. Later on she moved to Bylany where she during the further twenty-three years took care of differently ill, disabled, or behaviorally disordered children.
