Continuing my life journey and how I was led, this section describes how the way was paved over time to eventually move to Czechoslovakia. It is another part of an upcoming book or website section entitled Divinely Led.
Part 3: Life and Work in the USA
Way Paved for Czechoslovakia
The leading to eventually go back to Czechoslovakia (since January 1993, the Czech Republic), began inconspicuously in 1979. At that time the country was still deep in Communism and any changes were totally unimaginable. As a result the idea of ever going back was at this time unthinkable.
That year was the first time since we got married that we were able to leave the US without compromising our pending applications for permanent residency. So we decided to go to Australia to see our families, as well as reconnecting with church friends at one of the annual conventions.
When my parents, upon dad’s retirement earlier that year, moved to Queensland, they took a few of my belongings – two or three boxes – to Alex’s parents’ home in Warragul. While we visited there, Alex’s mother took us to a downstairs room to show us what my parents had left. To my surprise, in a book, I found old letters from relatives, specifically my maternal grandmother and dad’s aunt living at the time in Vienna, Austria. The discovery was quite shocking to me – I had no idea they had written and was quite touched by the contents. A sad story indeed, especially from my grandmother. Both she and my father’s aunt Marie were still alive at the time. They were the only relatives of that generation, other than my maternal grandmother’s sister, husband and mother I had met, as I had at that time not gotten to know my father’s side of the family, including my only first cousin and a couple of second cousins.
After visiting Alex’s parents, we travelled on to Queensland, where my parents lived on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane. They kindly paid our plane tickets to Maroochydore – a small country airport – and met us there. This was a totally new part of the country for us.
I felt unable to talk about the letter discovery – communication continued to be strained and I didn’t feel comfortable bringing up anything of a sensitive nature for fear of criticism or worse. Even so, while we thought that a visit had gone well, we still received in subsequent letters a negative evaluation with all kinds of bad motives imputed to us. It was a very sad and troublesome situation.
Upon returning to California, in 1979, I reestablished contact with my grandmother and the relatives in Vienna without my parents’ knowledge, let alone approval. My aunt, who was at that time helping my grandmother, and my grandmother’s neighbour, Mrs. Z., also responded to me. They filled me in on how the grandmother’s doctor, who saw her from time to time, but didn’t provide much help or care, took advantage of her situation and forced her to sign a will making him the universal heir of her possessions. I sent my grandmother several cards and letters and even a bouquet of flowers not long before she died in the early 1980s.
Fast forwarding for a minute, what I learned much later, in 2007, was that three-eighths of the house were in my mother’s name – so the doctor couldn’t have appropriated that part. With the help of a wonderful Czech Christian lawyer to whom we had been miraculously led to in the 1990s while living in the country, I was able to later look into the situation. Amazingly, my mother’s will was discovered at a legal office and proved that the three eighths of the house were actually willed to me. After a 10-year legal battle with the doctor’s daughter, and when she died of cancer, her sons, I finally received a payout for that part of the house in about 2018.
Following the discovery of the letters and establishing contacts with the relatives in Europe, we visited the Ott family in Vienna in 1981. Dad’s Aunt Marie was no longer alive, and for me it was the first time meeting Karl, Mitzi and their daughter Elfi in person. Through their help, I learned quite a lot about my father’s family – I literally knew no one, not even my aunt Vera and cousin Vladena.
Alex very much desired to visit Czechoslovakia, but while it was still under the Communist regime, it was not possible for me to go with him. Karl was willing to take him and bring back for a visit my aunt, Vera, but there was not enough time to do that on this trip. So upon our return home and careful deliberation and prayer, we decided to go back to Europe the following year, in 1982. At that time, with some advanced planning, Karl and Alex drove across the border and stayed several days, while I remained in Vienna. Alex met a few of my relatives, including my father’s second step-mother, who had outlived his father and was living in Podebrady. I had never met her in this life. He also met the doctor, who had unethically appropriated my grandmother’s part of the house that my family used to live in. The neighbor, Mrs. Z. was also still alive and he met her.
When they returned to Vienna, my aunt was quite amazed how different things were from her own country. It was the first time that I had a chance to speak to her and get to know her a little. Karl and Mitzi were wonderful hosts and took us to see various places. We also did a lot of talking.
Incredibly, in little and subtle ways and totally unbeknown to us, God continued to pave the way for our future move to what in March of 1993 – ten years later – became the Czech Republic. This was over three years after the fall of Communism in 1989 – something that I, or my parents, had never imagined possible.
Because of Alex’s desire to visit the country and me unable to go, sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s, I wanted to become a US citizen. This would have enabled me to shed my Czechoslovakian citizenship and be able to safely travel back. I went as far as the application, the study, and I believe the interview, but in the end, the request was denied. There was no logical reason for the denial, but looking back, I believe that God stopped me giving up my Czech (and Australian) citizenship. As it turned out, it came mighty handy later in a way that could not have been foreseen at the time.
The year 1989 became momentous for the world. An amazing series of events led on the 9th of November to the opening of the Berlin Wall that from 1961, for almost 30 years, divided East and West Berlin and made escape of East Germans into the West much harder, if not impossible. While some courageous and lucky souls had made it, many others who attempted it had lost their lives or the freedom they had.
Amazingly, by the end of November 1989, Communism had fallen in the Soviet satellite countries, officially ending the Cold War. It was a time of hope and celebration. The following year, East and West Germany reunited – but not all went as smoothly as expected.
The above events opened the door for us to attend in 1990 a church convention in Brno, Moravia. After that, we visited Tabor and Horni Borek in South Bohemia to meet my relatives – cousin Vladena with her family, and second cousins Frank and Alena with their families. We stayed with each family for a few days.
Travel on public transport in the then barely post-Communist Czechoslovakia wasn’t without challenges and adventures. Travelling to Horni Borek, we didn’t get out of the train on time and had to go to the next station! Vladena’s husband George’s car was out of order, so they couldn’t pick us up. So here we were stuck at a tiny country railway station with two suitcases! The family finally got a friend or neighbor to pick us up and take us to their country holiday home on the side of a lake.
Their older daughter Petra was a teenager and a Christian. Their newest arrival, born out of season, Dagmar (Dasa), was just a toddler. While George was working, we spent time with Vladena, Petra and Dasa going to the forest, picking mushrooms and enjoying the lovely countryside. Everything was full of new impressions as I was seeing the country again for the first time after over 20 years living abroad.
Following this special visit, Alex started wondering what it would be like to live in Czechoslovakia. With our European background, we felt a kinship with the people and even with the culture and nature. Could we serve in some way with our writing or in other ways? Initially, I was not at all excited by the idea – it just didn’t seem sound or realistic. Yet, somehow we were starting to feel the need to soon leave the US and looking for and desiring to be closer to family – either Alex’s or mine.
Alex also desired to visit neighboring Ukraine where we understood his father, or at least one of Alex’s grandparents, came from and where there may still have been some of his father’s siblings and other relatives. Another theory was that he was born in Tabor, Czechoslovakia and then moved with his family to Ukraine – but his communication on his past remained very scarce and vague to the end of his life, so neither we, nor his younger brothers found out for sure what his history was.
We were praying and seeking guidance regarding a possible move to Europe. A couple of ministers with a European background gave us a few insights. We also considered going back to where Alex’s parents and brothers with families lived in Victoria, Australia. It was a personally unsettled time as we were searching for guidance and answers.
The next section shows how we continued to be guided, against considerable odds, to eventually move to Czechoslovakia, which by the time we came, in 1993, split into Czech Republic and Slovakia.
For other information on divine leading, see Spirit Helpers and Guides
Here is a short reflection on being divinely led.