She was the granddaughter of Czech and Slovac immigrants who settled in Texas in the latter half of the 1800s. Her mother passed away from complications of childbirth and she was cared for by her paternal grandparents and her aunt Mary. Her father traveled and worked on many building construction projects along theTexas coastal plain. He remarried and took her older brother and sister with him. Mary remained and was raised by her grandparents.
She grew up in a household considered poor by today's standards, as were many other families of that era. The Great Depression hit hard when she was 8 years old and there was no social safety net back then, families were on their own. She was loved and well taken care of by her grandparents within their meager means.
Despite a rocky start learning to read, she excelled in her studies. She saw no need for history lessons but had a talent for math and she loved geometry. She grew into young adulthood, trained as a student nurse, worked on airplanes at Duncan Field in San Antonio at the start of WW2 and married our father Otto in 1942.
She raised five boys Al, Ray, Dave, Pat and Joe. She and Otto were married 61 years when he passed away in 2003. Our brother Dave passed away in 2017. She has been blessed with many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Despite having no daughters of her own, she had daughters-in-law who respected, enjoyed and loved her dearly.
She was pleasant and interesting to be around and had many friends over the years. She and Dad enjoyed square dancing in their retirement years. She was involved in her church's activities until mobility slowed her down later on.
She was inventive and creative and took up painting in her later years. She was an excellent cook, especially with making traditional Czech desserts and pastries. She was blessed with a large extended family living here in San Antonio and she enjoyed teaching art and pastry cooking to her great grandchildren.
Her mind was very active to the end of her life and she had the wit, intellect and memory of someone half her age. One grandchild observed that had she been born in this current era rather than early in the last century, she probably would have been a successful engineer or scientist. She was doing her daily cryptoquip puzzles up to the very end. Her indomitable spirit wore out two pacemakers, but she just kept on going, fully living the life God gave her.
She always had a positive attitude, almost never complained. Her rather humble beginnings made her more appreciative of the lifelong gifts of love and life. She lived almost 100 years.
She touched and was touched by the lives of her grandparents, aunts and uncles, a husband of 61 years, in laws, friends ,neighbors, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She lived a life with six generations of family and friends. For someone who wasn't interested in history in school she sure lived it, and lived it well.
She loved all of us dearly and we are sure that she still does. We love her now more than ever because we know what we have lost, but we move on, the generations move on.
What a wonderful human life.
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