Attachment V

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Do not forget. The following would never be written should the book 'Jak zit' was not published.

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For you to understand the relationship between Anna and Franta, you have to recall (1) a letter Anna wrote to Franta (*) about three years into their marriage and (2) how Franta described his approach to his marriage and his family (**).

  (*)  “. . . Why do we have to hurt somebody who is closest to us and who deserves it the least.
         How many times did I insult you, how many mean words did you hear from me. . .”

  (**) “ . . . Do not be surprised that for my future and for my future family I wanted to be the
            same parent and the same partner as was my father and my mother.”

Anna has quit her job after our first child was born and then for almost twenty years she took care of our household. In the book ‘Jak zit’, she emphasizes her love for her children and describes how well she took care of them. Here is one example how Anna solved household problems, specifically how she has handled diapers. Note that we used reusable cotton diapers and we had to wash them.

  -   Anna never washed a single diaper in her entire life. The washing of diapers, as well as the washing for the entire
      household, she left up to Franta.
  -   Anna never changed a single diaper to any one of her children (#).
  -   Franta has changed a diaper before he went to work in the morning, then he removed the same diaper when he returned
      home at night and he put the new one on.
  -   If the baby’s diapers are not changed during the day, the baby suffers from rashes and/or infections, however, Anna
       could not be bothered to do the job herself. When Franta would point it out, he heard ‘many more mean words’.
       (Franta quite cannot forget how a nurse in a child clinic chastised him for neglecting the baby’s diaper care.)
  -   This was an excuse for Franta to come home for lunch every day to take care of the diapers.
  -   Franta gave the baby a bath every night and together with Anna, he put him/her to bad.
  -   (#)  There was an exception to this rule. Anna had to change Veronika’s diapers when Franta went back to Prague to
       study and when for a few weeks he had to come back home for weekends. A pail full of stinking diapers was waiting
       for him every Friday.

Anna has quit her job after our first child was born, therefore for almost twenty years she did not need to go to work. She used that time to enhance her culinary expertise to learn to cook altogether two dishes. One was tomato gravy with macaroni and another one was a stew. Anna’s special dish was a combination of the two dishes. The cooking for the holidays, for the weekends and especially for visitors, she left up to Franta.

In the same way Anna and Franta cooperated on various projects such as was an adaptation of a house in Suchdol or a building of their house in Ann Arbor. Anna thus obtained a real experience and a chance to tell toll stories later.