My mum said that those peacock calls sounded as if they were bringing misfortune
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Lydie Půrová, née Beštová, was born on the 28thof July 1932 in Český Straklov na Volyni, a town which fell under Poland at the time (today it is a part of Ukraine). She spent a large part of her childhood in a nearby village called Ledochovka. Her family was heavily affected by the crimes committed by both the Communist and Nazi regimes. Her aunt, Marie Todorovičová and her children, living in the eastern Volhynia, miraculously survived the man-made famine, caused by Soviets. Her uncle Vladimír Bešta and his son were shot to death for being exploiters of the country people, his wife and two more children were forced into exile. Other relatives of Lydie died in Český Malín, a town burnt down by the Nazis that became a symbol of the suffering that Volhynia Czechs endured. Within a single day, three aunts, two uncles, and three female and three male cousins were murdered, the youngest, Václav, being only five years old. In 1947 the family re-emigrated to Czechoslovakia and settled in Frankštát, as did a lot of families from Český Malín after the expulsion of Germans. Out of respect, the town changed its name to Nový Malín in 1947. Despite the fact that Lydie only spent six years in school in Ukraine her parents enrolled her in a high school in Šumperk from which she successfully graduated. Later she graduated at the pharmaceutical faculty of the Masaryk University in Brno. She married Lubomír Půr in 1957, and gave birth to her son Igor and her daughter Ivana. She worked at a pharmacy in Šumperk up until she retired and still lived there with her husband as of 2018.
