April 2, 2024 • 25 mins
As I weave through the cherished memories of my grandmother's 91-year long life, a poignant tapestry of love, strength, and wisdom unfurls. Her time as a telegraph operator, her exceptional marriage, and the life lessons she embedded in the fabric of our family's history are stories I hold close to my heart. In this intimate episode, I invite you into our family circle to celebrate her legacy, sharing how she transformed the scarcity of her youth into a life rich with abundance and leadership—principles that she instilled in us through her exceptional culinary delights and her daily embodiment of grace and resilience.
Embark on a journey that travels through the art of connection, as we remember a grandmother whose calligraphy-like handwriting in letters and cards became the glue that kept our family bound across distances. Her global perspective and the courage to stand firm in her convictions are pillars of the character she cultivated within us. This episode also contrasts the diverse marital dynamics within our lineage, distilling the essence of trust and love's transformative power. Wrapping up with a tender reflection inspired by "The Little Prince," we unveil the wisdom that our most treasured relationships, much like the rose that is dear to the Little Prince, are those we have nurtured with our hearts. Join us as we honor the indelible mark these matriarchs have left on our lives, and perhaps find a reflection of your own family's matriarchs in the stories shared.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the
Grand Slam Journey podcast,where we discuss various topics
related to finding our passionand purpose, maximizing our
potential sports, life aftersports, and transitioning from
one chapter of our lives to thenext, growing our skills and
leadership in whatever we decideto put our minds into.
(00:23):
In a nutshell, we talk aboutthe Grand Slam journey of our
lives.
Today is a special episode thatI want to dedicate to my
grandmother.
My grandmother lived an amazing91 years.
We're very grateful for thetime we have had with her, and
(00:46):
yet it is not easier to let hergo.
Our hearts have been very heavythe past two weeks, and I've
been pondering for a long timewhether I'm skilled enough to
create this episode and paint mygrandma at least in half of the
picture for the women that shewas and all that she has taught
(01:10):
me.
I'm pretty sure it will not doits justice, but one of the
lessons I have learned from mygrandma is you never know until
you try, and so here is myattempt, and so here's my
(01:30):
attempt.
My grandma was born on November3rd 1932, as a fourth child of
her parents, barbara and AntoninKnotek.
She was fourth out of ten kids,and so the family dynamic was
always very lively.
After she finished herelementary studies, my grandma
became a telegraph operator.
She worked in this position herwhole life until she retired.
(01:53):
She always took her workseriously and performed it with
a high level of care andconscientiousness.
She attended several courses toadvance her understanding of
the telegraph technology and allthat it entailed.
For those listeners who areyounger and may not know what
(02:13):
telegraph is, a telegraph is adevice for transmitting and
receiving messages over longdistance.
In a nutshell, it is the waypeople used to communicate back
then, before telephones existed.
This meant that my grandmareceived some of the most
important messages that wereaddressed to the people in the
(02:35):
area we lived in, and she neededto translate and deliver them
to those they were addressed to.
This also meant a great deal ofsecrecy, because those messages
were personal and so her jobrequired keeping information
safe, secure and private.
At the end of the 40s, she mether future husband, josef
(03:00):
Chmelash.
My grandpa Josef noticed her ata dance party, and their
relationship kept evolving.
During his military trainingsand sporadic short vacations
they were able to take together,my grandpa would write my
grandma love letters, and shesaved every one of them and read
(03:24):
through them periodicallyalmost all the way until her
last day.
They got married on the 18th ofApril 1953, and had two kids,
josef and Maria.
You probably noticed that therewasn't much name creativity,
but that's perhaps the onlycreativity they were lacking.
(03:47):
Their marriage was full of loveand lasted 43 years, up until
the death of my grandfather, whodied on December 7th 1996.
They were a true example ofwhat a marriage should look like
Love, happiness and jointrespect.
(04:07):
It doesn't mean that there areno arguments, but they were
always able to voice theiropinions and different sides and
come to an understanding and anagreement.
One of the things we alwaysremember when we think about my
grandma's and grandpa's marriagewas their industriousness.
(04:30):
Back in the time, during thecommunist era, there weren't
many things that you cangenerally buy, such as cars or
lawnmowers.
Back then my grandpa was veryindustrious and so he decided
he's gonna make these thingshimself.
He would always call my grandma, darling, come and help me, and
(04:52):
my grandma would go help mygrandpa put together a car,
build a lawnmower, a washingmachine or create a swing.
That's still on their yard upuntil today, and my grandma
enjoyed sitting on with hergrandchildren and
great-grandchildren enjoying theweather and the seasons of the
(05:15):
year.
My grandma was a master educatorDue to the big family she was
from.
She had to help take care ofher siblings because she was the
second oldest daughter out of10.
But her true care and passionfor helping the next generations
be better really came with hergrandchildren, which is me, my
(05:41):
sister and my two cousins, andthen also with her
great-grandchildren.
She taught us many lessons inlife and I'm going to try to sum
up just a few of them.
Lesson number one Everythingcan be figured out after you eat
something.
My grandma was a master chef.
Sitting down and eating herfood was always the number one
(06:04):
thing we had to do after we camehome from school or work.
She often made several coursesfor different family members
because people were picky andenjoyed eating different things.
For example, my grandpa neverliked chicken, but other members
of the family enjoyed chicken alot, and so she would cook
(06:27):
several meals and courses tomake everyone happy.
She never complained about itand always did it with care and
love.
Lesson number two Scarcity andabundance is a mindset shift.
A true art of a leader iscreating something great out of
limited resources.
(06:47):
During the communist era thereweren't many things you could
buy in the supermarket.
I remember my grandma tellingme the long line they had to
stand in to buy a few bananas,and those were usually dedicated
for us.
But that didn't stop mygrandma's culinary skills.
(07:07):
Some of the best foods I stillmake myself and remember are
some of the easiest ones whichmy grandma always made special
Fresh slice of bread withhomemade ghee, salt and freshly
cut onion.
Or fresh slice of bread withwhole bunch of butter and
(07:28):
sardines.
Because fish was healthy, mygrandma said.
But there weren't many fishoptions back then.
The reality is sardines areactually some of the best fish
when it comes to nutrition youcan consume.
So my grandma was right.
I really enjoyed my grandma'stea, homemade vanilla pudding,
(07:48):
cream of wheat with cocoa andsometimes homemade canned fruits
such as peaches.
My grandma always madedelicious pancakes, balish pěry
pasta with sugar and groundpoppy seeds.
This one may sound weird butit's really delicious Kynuták,
(08:10):
nadlíky, plněne, ovocem, sweetrice, žemlovka and many others
Sorry, some of these I don'tknow how to translate in English
, so you may need to look themup and check.
We all had our favorites and mygrandma was always happy to
make whatever food made us happy.
She was a master orchestrator.
(08:33):
Lesson number three do the hardthings first.
After we came home from schooland ate, the first thing we had
to do is do our homework.
That is the number oneimportant thing, and we couldn't
do anything else until ourhomework was done.
If we wanted to go out and play, we had to finish all the work
(08:55):
first.
I think this skill is reallyimportant to learn early on and
helped set me for success laterin my life.
Even famous Annie Duke talksabout in her decision-making
books how important it is tostart with the hardest problem
first.
Once you do that, everythingelse becomes easier.
(09:16):
Lesson number four never compareyourself to others and set high
goals for yourself.
When we came back from schooland, for example, we had a B
plus grade but everybody elsehad worse grade, we would come
to grandma and say, well, ourgrade wasn't actually as bad
(09:39):
because everybody else in theclass had worse grades.
My grandma always said that itdoesn't matter what everyone
else had.
It is important to only look atour own performance and see
what we can do better.
On the opposite side, if wecame from school and we had a B+
(10:00):
, but there was another personin the class that had an A.
Our grandma always found a wayto inspire us to work harder.
What this meant is that we hadmore room to grow, practice and
learn, but she never made itlook like she forced us to do
(10:20):
that.
Her approach was to set highgoals for ourselves because she
knew we could be better and shebelieved in us, probably more
than we believed in ourselves atthat point in time.
Her belief is something thatinspired us to study more and
work harder.
Lesson number five you can learnanything if you're willing to
(10:43):
put in the time and effort intothings.
My grandma, even though sheonly had elementary school
education, knew severallanguages in her 60s, and that's
because she quizzed us on allthe material that we took during
our education.
She learned all the subjectswith us and quizzed us on
(11:05):
everything from, obviously, theCzech language, mathematics,
history, geography, but alsoforeign languages such as
English, german, spanish and, atthe end, even French, spanish
and at the end, even French.
How did she do it, I don't know, but she made sure we
(11:26):
understood all the subjects, andthe way she taught us was she
would quiz us on all thevocabulary from the beginning to
the end of the year or whereverin the school year we were.
For example, if we had an examin December, she would quiz us
on all the materials startingfrom September, october,
(11:47):
november and December.
It wouldn't be just one lessonor one chapter we would rehearse
, but we would go all the way,from the beginning to an end, to
ensure we had a perfect memoryand nothing surprised us.
And if we made a mistakesomewhere in the middle, she
would start over to make sure weremember all of them.
(12:10):
My grandma knew that repetitionand hard work pays off.
Lesson number six Diligence andconsistency, are learned skills
and they will take you furtherin life.
My grandma had a special eye forwriting that, as you know, you
(12:31):
learn early on in life.
When we were young, she wouldhelp us create lines in the
notebooks and she was verydiligent on the way our writing
looks.
She would coach us on when toturn, when to go straight and
make sure that every singleletter looks exactly the same as
(12:54):
the previous one.
She called it psát jak tiskne,which would translate to English
something like write as youprint.
It was a form of calligraphy.
My grandma also never forgotanyone's birthday or name day.
She would pick some of the mostbeautiful cards and make sure
(13:17):
she would send it to us nomatter where in the world we
were At the beginning.
She would either type it inwith the typewriter or later she
would write it in her own handin the same type of writing she
taught us, with precision, loveand care.
It was always beautifullywritten in the same type of
(13:40):
calligraphy that she taught us.
She always found a way to keepthe family organized and
orchestrated.
She would remind forgetfulpeople in the family when to pay
their bills that there will bea time change, for example when
you spring forward, or that it'sthe new year and people should
(14:00):
buy a new autobahn permit meanshighway permit.
When we started to live abroador we would travel abroad for
vacation, our grandma wouldwrite the exchange rate and keep
track of it and tell us when isthe best time to change our
money.
She kept these papers, writtenby hand and neatly organized, in
(14:25):
her kitchen cabinet, so they'realways handy and she always
understands what's happening andreminds us about the best
timing.
Lesson number seven If you'reuncertain about something, phone
a friend.
Back in the day when we studied, there wasn't an access to
(14:45):
internet such as Google orChatGPT to look up things Google
or chat GPT to look up thingsand so my grandma always had a
group of experts that she wouldphone to in case we weren't sure
about how to complete aspecific problem during our
homework, she had her selectedpeople that she trusted for
specific subjects.
(15:05):
For example, my grandpa wasreally good in mathematics.
Later it was also my uncle whowould help us.
Czech and German was our auntAnichka and cousin Peter, and so
if there was a problem wedidn't know how to solve, my
grandma always found a way tovalidate our work and ensure we
(15:30):
had it right.
Found a way to validate ourwork and ensure we had it right.
I believe it is a great skillfor life to always have a
trusted group of people that youcan phone to and ask about the
specific topic or subject youdon't know how to solve yourself
.
Lesson number eight it isimportant to have a family-wide
and worldwide perspective.
(15:51):
Our grandma was always curiousabout all that we do.
She asked us how we're doing,what we're up to, where we're
traveling.
If we travel to a specificcountry, she would always look
it up in her map to see where itwas.
She would follow the news andshe would call me when I lived
(16:13):
in America whether I'm safe whenshe noticed there was an
earthquake or a tornado or someunfortunate gun shooting.
Taking a family and worldwideperspective has been essential
skill for my grandma.
Lesson number nine Create yourown convictions and don't be
(16:34):
afraid to voice them.
Considering the time that mygrandma and grandpa lived in,
they had a very equal marriage.
They always respected eachother's opinion and my grandma
was never afraid to speak upwhen she felt she needed to.
Lesson number 10.
Attitude and character areimportant.
(16:56):
This one was more of anobserved one than something that
my grandma would tell me, butlooking at her life, I have
never once heard my grandma talkbad about any person.
She's always approached thingsfrom a perspective that they're
solvable and if you put hardwork and effort into things, you
(17:19):
may be able to figure problemsout.
Whether it was cooking for thewhole family, orchestrating the
house and ensuring everybodyarrives to their school and
post-school activities on timeand people don't forget things,
she was that master orchestrator.
She kept things and people incheck and she had never
(17:43):
complained about it.
She was almost like the glue inour family that held it
together.
She did so many things aroundthe house and in the house that
sometimes I wonder if we reallyappreciated them enough.
But she never once complainedabout it and did them with love
and care and put her whole heartand effort into them.
(18:06):
Lesson number 11.
Love makes the world a betterplace.
By now, you probably envisionthe human that my grandma has
been, and all of these actionshave been driven by her love and
passion for us in the family.
(18:26):
If I look at my childhood, I hadperhaps some of the best
examples I could ask for.
On one hand, I had my grandma'sand grandpa's marriage.
That, I'm sure, wasn't easy,but it was full of hard work,
commitment, trust.
There were arguments, but theyalways found their way through
(18:47):
them.
One of their main focuses wason making our lives better than
their lives were, and so theprogress of the next generation
was the key focus of theirdecisions, and, despite all the
hard things they had to gothrough, they have always found
a joint understanding and lovefor each other.
(19:08):
On the opposite side, I had mymom and dad marriage, which
there are many positiveattributes, but in many ways it
was one of the most chaoticmarriages I have seen.
Obviously, it was my childhood,so I'm looking at it from that
perspective, from my lens, I hada perfect example of what a
(19:30):
successful marriage and trustcould look like, and the not so
great example of what lack oftrust looks like from my mom and
dad's perspective.
And sometimes it is easier tostart with who you don't want to
be or what kind of marriage orpartnership you don't want to
(19:51):
have, than to envision the oneyou do, and so having these two
polar opposites was reallyimportant for me.
My grandparents provided me astable childhood, very organized
, orchestrated.
I always knew what was coming.
My grandpa was the fun one thatwould make everything lighter.
(20:13):
He would tell me stories, makeus laugh.
My grandma was the one who keptthings organized, gave us food,
taught us how to study, taughtus discipline and perseverance,
and so the balance of thequalities between the two was a
perfect symbiosis and gave me abeautiful foundation for all the
(20:37):
years I had.
I still use those lessons tocontinue to grow and learn.
There wasn't a time where Iwould not have felt loved by my
grandparents.
I always knew that even thehardest things they're asking me
to do were from a place thatthey believed I can do better,
(20:58):
and a deep place of trust, loveand having confidence in my
abilities often higher than thelevel of confidence I had in
myself at that time.
I could probably keep going onand on, but I will conclude this
episode with a short story fromthe book Little Prince written
(21:20):
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
There was my attempt for theright French pronunciation.
So the little prince tamed thefox.
And when the hour of hisdeparture drew near, oh, said
the little fox, I shall cry.
It is your own fault, said thelittle prince.
(21:45):
I never wished you any sort ofharm, but you wanted me to tame.
You wished you any sort of harm, but you wanted me to tame you.
Yes, that is so, said the fox,but now you are going to cry,
said the little prince.
Yes, that is so, said the fox.
(22:05):
Then it has done you no good atall.
It has done me good, said thefox, because of the color of the
wheat fields.
And then he added go and lookagain at the roses.
You'll understand now thatyours is unique in all the world
.
Then come back to say goodbyeto me and I will make you a
(22:28):
present of a secret.
The little prince went away tolook again at the roses.
You are not at all like my rose, he said as yet you are nothing
.
No one has tamed you and youhave tamed no one.
You are like my fox.
(22:48):
When I first knew him he wasonly a fox, like a hundred
thousand other foxes, but I havemade him my friend and now he
is unique in all the world.
And those roses were very muchembarrassed.
You are beautiful, but you areempty, he went on.
One could not die for you.
(23:11):
To be sure, an ordinary passerbywould think that my rose looked
just like you, the rose thatbelongs to me.
But in herself alone she ismore important than all the
hundreds of you other roses,because it is she that I have
watered, because it is she thatI have put under the glass globe
(23:34):
, because it is she that I havesheltered behind the screen,
because it is for her that Ihave killed the caterpillars,
except the two or three that wesaved to become butterflies.
Because it is she that I havelistened to when she grumbled or
boasted, or even sometimes whenshe said nothing, because she
(23:58):
is my rose.
And he went back to me the fox,goodbye, he said.
Goodbye, said the fox, goodbye,said the fox.
And now here is my secret, avery simple secret.
(24:20):
It is only with the heart thatone can see rightly.
What is essential is invisibleto the eye.
What is essential is invisibleto the eye, the little prince
repeated, so that he would besure to remember.
It is the time you have wastedfor your rose.
(24:43):
That makes your rose soimportant.
It is the time I have wastedfor my rose, said the little
prince, so that he would be sureto remember.
Men have forgotten this truth,said the fox, but you must not
forget it.
You become responsible foreverfor what you have tamed.
(25:04):
You are responsible for yourrose.
I am responsible for my rose.
The little prince repeated sothat he would be sure to
remember.
I hope you enjoyed the lessonand learning more about my
grandmother.
Thank you for tuning in.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the
Grand Slam Journey podcast,where we discuss various topics
related to finding our passionand purpose, maximizing our
potential sports, life aftersports, and transitioning from
one chapter of our lives to thenext, growing our skills and
leadership in whatever we decideto put our minds into.
(00:23):
In a nutshell, we talk aboutthe Grand Slam journey of our
lives.
Today is a special episode thatI want to dedicate to my
grandmother.
My grandmother lived an amazing91 years.
We're very grateful for thetime we have had with her, and
(00:46):
yet it is not easier to let hergo.
Our hearts have been very heavythe past two weeks, and I've
been pondering for a long timewhether I'm skilled enough to
create this episode and paint mygrandma at least in half of the
picture for the women that shewas and all that she has taught
(01:10):
me.
I'm pretty sure it will not doits justice, but one of the
lessons I have learned from mygrandma is you never know until
you try, and so here is myattempt, and so here's my
(01:30):
attempt.
My grandma was born on November3rd 1932, as a fourth child of
her parents, barbara and AntoninKnotek.
She was fourth out of ten kids,and so the family dynamic was
always very lively.
After she finished herelementary studies, my grandma
became a telegraph operator.
She worked in this position herwhole life until she retired.
(01:53):
She always took her workseriously and performed it with
a high level of care andconscientiousness.
She attended several courses toadvance her understanding of
the telegraph technology and allthat it entailed.
For those listeners who areyounger and may not know what
(02:13):
telegraph is, a telegraph is adevice for transmitting and
receiving messages over longdistance.
In a nutshell, it is the waypeople used to communicate back
then, before telephones existed.
This meant that my grandmareceived some of the most
important messages that wereaddressed to the people in the
(02:35):
area we lived in, and she neededto translate and deliver them
to those they were addressed to.
This also meant a great deal ofsecrecy, because those messages
were personal and so her jobrequired keeping information
safe, secure and private.
At the end of the 40s, she mether future husband, josef
(03:00):
Chmelash.
My grandpa Josef noticed her ata dance party, and their
relationship kept evolving.
During his military trainingsand sporadic short vacations
they were able to take together,my grandpa would write my
grandma love letters, and shesaved every one of them and read
(03:24):
through them periodicallyalmost all the way until her
last day.
They got married on the 18th ofApril 1953, and had two kids,
josef and Maria.
You probably noticed that therewasn't much name creativity,
but that's perhaps the onlycreativity they were lacking.
(03:47):
Their marriage was full of loveand lasted 43 years, up until
the death of my grandfather, whodied on December 7th 1996.
They were a true example ofwhat a marriage should look like
Love, happiness and jointrespect.
(04:07):
It doesn't mean that there areno arguments, but they were
always able to voice theiropinions and different sides and
come to an understanding and anagreement.
One of the things we alwaysremember when we think about my
grandma's and grandpa's marriagewas their industriousness.
(04:30):
Back in the time, during thecommunist era, there weren't
many things that you cangenerally buy, such as cars or
lawnmowers.
Back then my grandpa was veryindustrious and so he decided
he's gonna make these thingshimself.
He would always call my grandma, darling, come and help me, and
(04:52):
my grandma would go help mygrandpa put together a car,
build a lawnmower, a washingmachine or create a swing.
That's still on their yard upuntil today, and my grandma
enjoyed sitting on with hergrandchildren and
great-grandchildren enjoying theweather and the seasons of the
(05:15):
year.
My grandma was a master educatorDue to the big family she was
from.
She had to help take care ofher siblings because she was the
second oldest daughter out of10.
But her true care and passionfor helping the next generations
be better really came with hergrandchildren, which is me, my
(05:41):
sister and my two cousins, andthen also with her
great-grandchildren.
She taught us many lessons inlife and I'm going to try to sum
up just a few of them.
Lesson number one Everythingcan be figured out after you eat
something.
My grandma was a master chef.
Sitting down and eating herfood was always the number one
(06:04):
thing we had to do after we camehome from school or work.
She often made several coursesfor different family members
because people were picky andenjoyed eating different things.
For example, my grandpa neverliked chicken, but other members
of the family enjoyed chicken alot, and so she would cook
(06:27):
several meals and courses tomake everyone happy.
She never complained about itand always did it with care and
love.
Lesson number two Scarcity andabundance is a mindset shift.
A true art of a leader iscreating something great out of
limited resources.
(06:47):
During the communist era thereweren't many things you could
buy in the supermarket.
I remember my grandma tellingme the long line they had to
stand in to buy a few bananas,and those were usually dedicated
for us.
But that didn't stop mygrandma's culinary skills.
(07:07):
Some of the best foods I stillmake myself and remember are
some of the easiest ones whichmy grandma always made special
Fresh slice of bread withhomemade ghee, salt and freshly
cut onion.
Or fresh slice of bread withwhole bunch of butter and
(07:28):
sardines.
Because fish was healthy, mygrandma said.
But there weren't many fishoptions back then.
The reality is sardines areactually some of the best fish
when it comes to nutrition youcan consume.
So my grandma was right.
I really enjoyed my grandma'stea, homemade vanilla pudding,
(07:48):
cream of wheat with cocoa andsometimes homemade canned fruits
such as peaches.
My grandma always madedelicious pancakes, balish pěry
pasta with sugar and groundpoppy seeds.
This one may sound weird butit's really delicious Kynuták,
(08:10):
nadlíky, plněne, ovocem, sweetrice, žemlovka and many others
Sorry, some of these I don'tknow how to translate in English
, so you may need to look themup and check.
We all had our favorites and mygrandma was always happy to
make whatever food made us happy.
She was a master orchestrator.
(08:33):
Lesson number three do the hardthings first.
After we came home from schooland ate, the first thing we had
to do is do our homework.
That is the number oneimportant thing, and we couldn't
do anything else until ourhomework was done.
If we wanted to go out and play, we had to finish all the work
(08:55):
first.
I think this skill is reallyimportant to learn early on and
helped set me for success laterin my life.
Even famous Annie Duke talksabout in her decision-making
books how important it is tostart with the hardest problem
first.
Once you do that, everythingelse becomes easier.
(09:16):
Lesson number four never compareyourself to others and set high
goals for yourself.
When we came back from schooland, for example, we had a B
plus grade but everybody elsehad worse grade, we would come
to grandma and say, well, ourgrade wasn't actually as bad
(09:39):
because everybody else in theclass had worse grades.
My grandma always said that itdoesn't matter what everyone
else had.
It is important to only look atour own performance and see
what we can do better.
On the opposite side, if wecame from school and we had a B+
(10:00):
, but there was another personin the class that had an A.
Our grandma always found a wayto inspire us to work harder.
What this meant is that we hadmore room to grow, practice and
learn, but she never made itlook like she forced us to do
(10:20):
that.
Her approach was to set highgoals for ourselves because she
knew we could be better and shebelieved in us, probably more
than we believed in ourselves atthat point in time.
Her belief is something thatinspired us to study more and
work harder.
Lesson number five you can learnanything if you're willing to
(10:43):
put in the time and effort intothings.
My grandma, even though sheonly had elementary school
education, knew severallanguages in her 60s, and that's
because she quizzed us on allthe material that we took during
our education.
She learned all the subjectswith us and quizzed us on
(11:05):
everything from, obviously, theCzech language, mathematics,
history, geography, but alsoforeign languages such as
English, german, spanish and, atthe end, even French, spanish
and at the end, even French.
How did she do it, I don't know, but she made sure we
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understood all the subjects, andthe way she taught us was she
would quiz us on all thevocabulary from the beginning to
the end of the year or whereverin the school year we were.
For example, if we had an examin December, she would quiz us
on all the materials startingfrom September, october,
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november and December.
It wouldn't be just one lessonor one chapter we would rehearse
, but we would go all the way,from the beginning to an end, to
ensure we had a perfect memoryand nothing surprised us.
And if we made a mistakesomewhere in the middle, she
would start over to make sure weremember all of them.
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My grandma knew that repetitionand hard work pays off.
Lesson number six Diligence andconsistency, are learned skills
and they will take you furtherin life.
My grandma had a special eye forwriting that, as you know, you
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learn early on in life.
When we were young, she wouldhelp us create lines in the
notebooks and she was verydiligent on the way our writing
looks.
She would coach us on when toturn, when to go straight and
make sure that every singleletter looks exactly the same as
(12:54):
the previous one.
She called it psát jak tiskne,which would translate to English
something like write as youprint.
It was a form of calligraphy.
My grandma also never forgotanyone's birthday or name day.
She would pick some of the mostbeautiful cards and make sure
(13:17):
she would send it to us nomatter where in the world we
were At the beginning.
She would either type it inwith the typewriter or later she
would write it in her own handin the same type of writing she
taught us, with precision, loveand care.
It was always beautifullywritten in the same type of
(13:40):
calligraphy that she taught us.
She always found a way to keepthe family organized and
orchestrated.
She would remind forgetfulpeople in the family when to pay
their bills that there will bea time change, for example when
you spring forward, or that it'sthe new year and people should
(14:00):
buy a new autobahn permit meanshighway permit.
When we started to live abroador we would travel abroad for
vacation, our grandma wouldwrite the exchange rate and keep
track of it and tell us when isthe best time to change our
money.
She kept these papers, writtenby hand and neatly organized, in
(14:25):
her kitchen cabinet, so they'realways handy and she always
understands what's happening andreminds us about the best
timing.
Lesson number seven If you'reuncertain about something, phone
a friend.
Back in the day when we studied, there wasn't an access to
(14:45):
internet such as Google orChatGPT to look up things Google
or chat GPT to look up thingsand so my grandma always had a
group of experts that she wouldphone to in case we weren't sure
about how to complete aspecific problem during our
homework, she had her selectedpeople that she trusted for
specific subjects.
(15:05):
For example, my grandpa wasreally good in mathematics.
Later it was also my uncle whowould help us.
Czech and German was our auntAnichka and cousin Peter, and so
if there was a problem wedidn't know how to solve, my
grandma always found a way tovalidate our work and ensure we
(15:30):
had it right.
Found a way to validate ourwork and ensure we had it right.
I believe it is a great skillfor life to always have a
trusted group of people that youcan phone to and ask about the
specific topic or subject youdon't know how to solve yourself
.
Lesson number eight it isimportant to have a family-wide
and worldwide perspective.
(15:51):
Our grandma was always curiousabout all that we do.
She asked us how we're doing,what we're up to, where we're
traveling.
If we travel to a specificcountry, she would always look
it up in her map to see where itwas.
She would follow the news andshe would call me when I lived
(16:13):
in America whether I'm safe whenshe noticed there was an
earthquake or a tornado or someunfortunate gun shooting.
Taking a family and worldwideperspective has been essential
skill for my grandma.
Lesson number nine Create yourown convictions and don't be
(16:34):
afraid to voice them.
Considering the time that mygrandma and grandpa lived in,
they had a very equal marriage.
They always respected eachother's opinion and my grandma
was never afraid to speak upwhen she felt she needed to.
Lesson number 10.
Attitude and character areimportant.
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This one was more of anobserved one than something that
my grandma would tell me, butlooking at her life, I have
never once heard my grandma talkbad about any person.
She's always approached thingsfrom a perspective that they're
solvable and if you put hardwork and effort into things, you
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may be able to figure problemsout.
Whether it was cooking for thewhole family, orchestrating the
house and ensuring everybodyarrives to their school and
post-school activities on timeand people don't forget things,
she was that master orchestrator.
She kept things and people incheck and she had never
(17:43):
complained about it.
She was almost like the glue inour family that held it
together.
She did so many things aroundthe house and in the house that
sometimes I wonder if we reallyappreciated them enough.
But she never once complainedabout it and did them with love
and care and put her whole heartand effort into them.
(18:06):
Lesson number 11.
Love makes the world a betterplace.
By now, you probably envisionthe human that my grandma has
been, and all of these actionshave been driven by her love and
passion for us in the family.
(18:26):
If I look at my childhood, I hadperhaps some of the best
examples I could ask for.
On one hand, I had my grandma'sand grandpa's marriage.
That, I'm sure, wasn't easy,but it was full of hard work,
commitment, trust.
There were arguments, but theyalways found their way through
(18:47):
them.
One of their main focuses wason making our lives better than
their lives were, and so theprogress of the next generation
was the key focus of theirdecisions, and, despite all the
hard things they had to gothrough, they have always found
a joint understanding and lovefor each other.
(19:08):
On the opposite side, I had mymom and dad marriage, which
there are many positiveattributes, but in many ways it
was one of the most chaoticmarriages I have seen.
Obviously, it was my childhood,so I'm looking at it from that
perspective, from my lens, I hada perfect example of what a
(19:30):
successful marriage and trustcould look like, and the not so
great example of what lack oftrust looks like from my mom and
dad's perspective.
And sometimes it is easier tostart with who you don't want to
be or what kind of marriage orpartnership you don't want to
(19:51):
have, than to envision the oneyou do, and so having these two
polar opposites was reallyimportant for me.
My grandparents provided me astable childhood, very organized
, orchestrated.
I always knew what was coming.
My grandpa was the fun one thatwould make everything lighter.
(20:13):
He would tell me stories, makeus laugh.
My grandma was the one who keptthings organized, gave us food,
taught us how to study, taughtus discipline and perseverance,
and so the balance of thequalities between the two was a
perfect symbiosis and gave me abeautiful foundation for all the
(20:37):
years I had.
I still use those lessons tocontinue to grow and learn.
There wasn't a time where Iwould not have felt loved by my
grandparents.
I always knew that even thehardest things they're asking me
to do were from a place thatthey believed I can do better,
(20:58):
and a deep place of trust, loveand having confidence in my
abilities often higher than thelevel of confidence I had in
myself at that time.
I could probably keep going onand on, but I will conclude this
episode with a short story fromthe book Little Prince written
(21:20):
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
There was my attempt for theright French pronunciation.
So the little prince tamed thefox.
And when the hour of hisdeparture drew near, oh, said
the little fox, I shall cry.
It is your own fault, said thelittle prince.
(21:45):
I never wished you any sort ofharm, but you wanted me to tame.
You wished you any sort of harm, but you wanted me to tame you.
Yes, that is so, said the fox,but now you are going to cry,
said the little prince.
Yes, that is so, said the fox.
(22:05):
Then it has done you no good atall.
It has done me good, said thefox, because of the color of the
wheat fields.
And then he added go and lookagain at the roses.
You'll understand now thatyours is unique in all the world
.
Then come back to say goodbyeto me and I will make you a
(22:28):
present of a secret.
The little prince went away tolook again at the roses.
You are not at all like my rose, he said as yet you are nothing
.
No one has tamed you and youhave tamed no one.
You are like my fox.
(22:48):
When I first knew him he wasonly a fox, like a hundred
thousand other foxes, but I havemade him my friend and now he
is unique in all the world.
And those roses were very muchembarrassed.
You are beautiful, but you areempty, he went on.
One could not die for you.
(23:11):
To be sure, an ordinary passerbywould think that my rose looked
just like you, the rose thatbelongs to me.
But in herself alone she ismore important than all the
hundreds of you other roses,because it is she that I have
watered, because it is she thatI have put under the glass globe
(23:34):
, because it is she that I havesheltered behind the screen,
because it is for her that Ihave killed the caterpillars,
except the two or three that wesaved to become butterflies.
Because it is she that I havelistened to when she grumbled or
boasted, or even sometimes whenshe said nothing, because she
(23:58):
is my rose.
And he went back to me the fox,goodbye, he said.
Goodbye, said the fox, goodbye,said the fox.
And now here is my secret, avery simple secret.
(24:20):
It is only with the heart thatone can see rightly.
What is essential is invisibleto the eye.
What is essential is invisibleto the eye, the little prince
repeated, so that he would besure to remember.
It is the time you have wastedfor your rose.
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That makes your rose soimportant.
It is the time I have wastedfor my rose, said the little
prince, so that he would be sureto remember.
Men have forgotten this truth,said the fox, but you must not
forget it.
You become responsible foreverfor what you have tamed.
(25:04):
You are responsible for yourrose.
I am responsible for my rose.
The little prince repeated sothat he would be sure to
remember.
I hope you enjoyed the lessonand learning more about my
grandmother.
Thank you for tuning in.
Host
Klara Jagosova
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