Visiting the Czech Cousins

The morning was a family ordeal, sharing breakfast to chants of, ‘Cheri! Cheri!” by Sophia and Vera, to which I had to answer by sitting in the middle. Luise prepared a nice coffee ☕️and read marmalade selection. Mom saw the All-American peanut butter and didn’t hesitate in requesting some for her Semmeln!

We left by walking to the S-Bahn, which we had reverse-timed the trip yesterday, from the Süd Bahnhof, where we bought our Breclav and Prague tickets in advance. Not including an Eis and coffee stop at the Eis Salon across the street from the train station – nor getting lost for half an hour -it took us about 45 minutes.

The sun was already warm, and it felt good to walk lightly-packed down the street, on an early Saturday morning with mom and dad, in Wien! Boarding the right train okay, we were headed for Breclav, to arrive one hour later, at 10:25 A.M.

As the train pulled into the station, we were all a bit nervous. (I was surprised that even M and D were!) We said, or dad did, that surely they would be more nervous than us – having to bring us to their home and entertain all day. We were hoping that they had received the telegram; especially when there appeared to be no one at the station to greet us.

Vladimir and Eva arrived shortly however, and we were happy to meet them! They drove us through the town of Ledniče (where John’s mother was born) to their home; Eva already pulling out the Czech-English dictionary.

When we arrived in Rakviče at their home, František and Milana -Vladimir’s parents – were there to welcome us. They had polkas playing and Kolače on the table (fresh made by Milana). It was so overwhelmingly emotional that mom had tears to her eyes, and I had to hold them back a bit, and everyone was taking pictures.

Milana immediately brought out mom’s prom photo in black and white, with her big, puffy,  American 50’s classic prom dress -and it was an incredible moment. I will never forget it, as long as I live, which will be till 95 years old.

Saturday 22 May, 1999