God gave her the gift to become a nurse in remote Rovensko
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Helena Pelnářová, née Holečková, was born on 8 February 1949 in the Czech village of Rovensko (Ravensca) in Romanian Banat. Her ancestors were said to have come here in the 1920s from Zdice na Berounsku. The witness’s parents were called Jan and Veronika Holeček and kept a small farm as their means of subsistence. After Helena’s birth, her father worked in the village as a nurse, because the village lay in a remote location, far from any hospital facilities. Although it was against his wishes, his daughter adopted his knowledge and experience and continued to educate herself. In Rovensko she completed four grades of school and then moved to the Romanian school in Božovice, where she stayed at the boarding school. But she did not complete her last, 11th class, because she decided to run away from home, eloping with a boy from the village. At the time of her wedding she was seventeen years old and together they raised two sons. She worked on the farm, but also 12 years as a forestry worker and provided various forms of healthcare to the locals. Both of her sons are residing permanently in Bohemia with their families, where the witness also lived from 2004, working under several Czech employers in West Bohemia. In 2008, she returned to Rovensko to be with her husband and two years later she was baptised, joining the Unity of the Brethren Baptists. At time of recording she was still living in Rovensko (September 2022).
