We were afraid that one day even my mum wouldn’t come home from work
Ludmila Voříšková was born on 24 September 1948 in Prague. Her parents worked in the Catholic publishing house Vyšehrad. Ludmila’s father Rudolf Voříšek was a Catholic thinker and philosopher. After the February coup, the Communists dissolved the publishing house and in 1951 her father Rudolf Voříšek was arrested and sentenced to 11 years imprisonment. He went through the Vinařice prison near Kladno and the Bytíz labour camp near Příbram. In November 1953, he died of leukaemia in prison. His children were not allowed to study at university because of their bad cadre assessment. Ludmila joined a language school as a secretary in 1967, later she changed many jobs. She welcomed the Velvet Revolution but then faced problems finding employment. This led to her mental breakdown and subsequently to a disability pension.