Laura and I sold our first house and we’ve taken our first steps on our path to the countryside. We are renting an apartment in an idyllic spot that I know you would love. We’re overlooking a small fishing lake on the grounds of an ancient country estate on the edge of a quintessential English village. I think of you so often now whenever I look out the window. There are two resident herons fishing in the mornings and evenings. I can just picture your eyes lighting up at their graceful flight around the lake. Each night we go to sleep to the mournful serenade of a tawny owl. There’s even a great crested grebe! I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen one of those. The woods are full of deer and other various critters. Wildlife just surrounds us and I know that would have made you so happy.

On August 3rd, 2011, we held a ceremony for my mother in Prerov, Czech Republic – her birth place and now her final resting place. I shared some of these words with the family and friends who joined us.

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Thanks everyone for being here to mourn, remember and celebrate my mother’s life. I’d like to tell you about her. 

She loved life

Everything my mom did demonstrated her love for life.

+ Her smile and cheerful laugh.+ Her relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and even pets (namely Teddy, her yellow Labrador Retriever).

+ Her passion for work. She was a committed teacher who loved her students, and they loved her.

+ She loved traveling. Iceland, Alaska, Hawaii, London, Paris, Prague, the San Juan Islands are a few of her favorite places.

+ Music, opera, the arts. Her favorite Opera, La Traviata, she recently introduced and explained to her granddaughters Sophia and Sasha.

+ Wine and food. Nothing relaxed her more than a glass of wine after a long day at work.

+ Her garden. Some of her happiest times, even while she was sick, were spent gardening.

In her most difficult times during her illness, she remained hopeful, optimistic, forward looking, courageous and cheerful. She simply wanted to live.

She loved the natural world around her

She loved to experience, study and protect the natural world.

+ She experienced the environment through hikes, bird watching and mushroom picking. She loved to do this with family and friends, most recently with Sophia and Sasha.

+ She studied the natural world as a scientist and teacher. She loved reading about nature, animals and evolution. She admired authors like Stephan Jay Gould and Bill Bryson.

+ She wanted to protect the natural world. The work of conservation groups like The Audubon Society, The World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club was important to her.

She loved us

+ She loved my Dad, and everyone who knew them could see that. Their relationship has been a model for me.

+ She loved Tom and me. She took such good care of us, through her last days. She inspired us to be interested in ideas, places and people. I owe so much to her: my curiosity and interests, the quality of my personal relationships, my optimism and confidence, and my capacity to love and be a parent.

+ She was a caring, loving sister, daughter and mother-in-law.

+ My mom adored her granddaughters – Sophia and Sasha. She was well on her way to introducing them to the things to which she introduced me. We will do our best to make sure that she is always a part of their lives.

In the past few years, my mom organized family trips to France and Hawaii – the Hawaii trip for my Dad’s 70th birthday. These were special gatherings that gave us life long memories. These are the types of things she did for us, because she loved us so much.

Saying goodbye

My mom left us too early. As she told my Dad, she had plans and she needed more time. 

We had plans with her too:

+ To travel with her even more.

+ To celebrate her 70th, 80th and 90th birthdays.

+ To watch Sophia and Sasha graduate college and get married.

+ To sit around together and just look at each other without saying anything.

+ To love her and to give her more time to love life, the world and all of us.

We miss her and love her very much.

In August last year we were visiting Frank and Jitka in their new home in Woodinville. Jitka started to feel better. They had so many plans for the future.

Jitka was so exited with her new garden. Every morning we took a walk around the property. Jitka took daily notes and/or pictures about plants.

We watched the deer and birds eating the raspberries. She was happy to share it all with everybody, her family, friends, birds, deer even the bear.

It was August, almost the end of the summer. We did not know something else would end way to soon.

All we are left with are memories and we thank you for them.

Olda a Maria

Last night I spend some time looking at the pictures in Jitka's gallery.

I was thinking about us during the past 40+ years.

About past birthdays, vacations and time together.

After I tried to think about our future.... there is none.

We will never hear Jitka's greeting  "Ahoj lidičky, jak se mate".

Today the sun came out, the birds are singing, life goes on but it never be the same without Jitka.

Thinking about you - Maria

We were so upset to hear the sad news about Jitka. She was one of the most beautiful women we have ever known, both inside and out. It was always a pleasure to enjoy her intelligent, gentle, sweet demeanor. The image of her lovely smiling face remains indelible in our minds. As a superb teacher at Columbia Grammar and Prep School in New York, she was loved by her students and fellow teachers because she was so dedicated and hard-working. She wanted only the best for her students, and any child who was in one of her classes was privileged to have such an outstanding teacher. We were privileged to have met her through the school, but also to have become her dear friend and Upper West Side neighbors. She loved walking in Central Park and watching for birds. She was a very, very special woman, and we are grateful to have known her, even for far-too-short a time. We send our love and deepest condolences to our friend Frank, Jitka’s sister and her husband, Jitka’s sons and daughters-in-law, and her granddaugthers. We know that she loved you all very much.
                                                                  Karen and Marvin Terban, New York

February 4, 2011

Dear Frank sons, daughters-in-law, granddaughters, and friends,

I realize I have never met a number of you and appreciate that your losses in the loss of your wife and mother are so far above mine that I may be seen as having nothing to say to you.  I am writing anyway because I know loss and how much it means to hear many voices offering support to each of you.  I lost my husband in 2009, my 25 year old son in 1984 and both losses led me to discover meaning years later in the letters I saved and reread again in 2009 and 2010.  It was a surprise to me to discover how many letters and messages I had completely forgotten during the depths of my depression and loss.  Like you, I want above all else for the persons we love to be remembered, not to be forgotten as though they had never lived.  I spent ten years on the faculty of a Catholic university in NY, 8 years on the faculty of a Lutheran college in Minnesota – I am neither Catholic nor Lutheran – yet I rediscovered that my son  probably enjoyed more perpetual masses than any non-Catholic, that my son and husband received many memorials from all my colleagues in each of the institutions I served including those in the Czech Republic who knew my husband but not my son,  So here goes my tribute to Jitka, a loving and beloved person in many countries, anyplace where anyone have the privilege of knowing her.

My sense of knowing Jitka has come from living in the home shared by she and Frank here on Valentinska.  How can you benefit from offered winter jackets and bathrobe without feeling closer to their owners.  It is impossible to live with Jitka’s and Franks’ treasures and books and music and valued personal art and carpets and furnishingx and décor, without feeling a closeness to their owners.  Add the photographs of families from Jitka’s mother to the grandchildren and children and I find you all treasured parts of my life although I have only met those from UK.  Friends have called while I lived here and I served as an answering service.  So many people have shared their photos and memories on Jitka’s memorial site that I often find myself both in tears and ever more respectful of her.

Forgive my intrusion and know that I hope it will bring comfort to each of you in the years ahead.

Sincerely,

Norma J. Hervey

I don’t think I actually remember this, rather I have been retold this story so many times that it feels like I remember it. Among the many activities my mom enjoyed, skiing was one of her favorites. She had me on skis soon after I was able to walk. We had a house in the New York Catskills with ample land and hills where she taught me to ski. When I was a little older and better on the skis, I began to cry when I fell down. No one understood why, until we went to a local ski area for the first time. On the way up the slope, I saw another skier fall. I began laughing hysterically. My mom then realized that between the two of us, I was the only one ever to fall down. From that moment on, she would pretend to fall with me. What a great mom.

As everyone who knew my mom knows, she was pretty up to speed on science. She also had a healthy “everything in moderation” attitude. And, before the days of ADHD, sugar spikes, glycaemic indexes, etc., she felt that a good dose of sugar and carbs were the way to get her kids ready for school in the morning. Dan and I grew up breakfasting on English muffins with cream cheese and jam washed down with a hot cup of cacao…until we were high school seniors!

Jitka was such a beautiful bridesmaid and she and Frank were the best swingers at our wedding. We not only  remember  May 18, 1969, but all the fun we shared before and after too.  Jitka was always such gracious hostess-good cook and baker. Peter remembers all the meals he enjoyed while still single,at your apartment in New York. 

And how can we forget one of the major snowstorms in New York City in winter of 1969, when Peter and Jitka worked at New York University and  Jitka wanted to go to Queens to look at a house she thought she and Frank may be interested in buying. Peter offered to take her and we all drove to Queens. Needless to say the trip took about 3 hours and we had to walk through the snow to see the house,as the street was impassable. What an evening! The owners must have thought we were insane to go house hunting in a snow storm. Too bad we lost track and were unable to share more pleasant times with you both. We kept trying to track you down,never expecting it this way. We miss you and will never forget you! Fondly, Hana and Peter Kovanic

Cousin Eddy came to visit us (Jitka) in New York from Florida after we have not seen him for many years. He used to have a plumbing business when he lived in the area. To his and our total surprise we found out, that we lived in a brownstone that was his first New York City job. He knew every pipe in the house.  We went to see the Christo gates and had a very good time together.

My mom loved us, her family, so much. Put that together with her passion for travel and adventure, and the result was lots of family gatherings all over the world. In recent years, she toured the world and brought us along for the ride as much as possible. Kauai, Orcas Island, France, Czech Republic.

I'm so thankful that she did that for us.

In this picture, we're at dinner in Hanelei Kauai, celebrating my dad's 70th birthday. This photo captures my mom surrounded by her granddaughters Sophia and Sasha, whom she adored. Unseen in this picture is the rest of us - Frank, Eva, Tom, Laura, Laurie and me, Dan - gathered from New York, London and Seattle.

This trip was so much fun. The beach, the food, the conversation, and the North Shore rain. It should not have been the last time we gathered in that place she loved so much. Her 70th birthday party would have been an adventure as well. It could have been anywhere. She loved Alaska and Iceland. And she would have brought us all there with her.

We miss her and love her very much.

In August 2010, during our visit in their new home in Woodinville, Jitka shared with us her pleasure of her new garden.

One week before Christmas we spoke, Jitka was baking cookies for the grandchildren. Frank and Jitka were planning to visit us in California this winter. Jitka was asking what would be blooming here.

Our first meeting in 1970 was a 'business' meeting. That was beginning of long lasting friendship. The second time, and every time for next 40 years, we got together because we like each other.

Jitka was the youngest of four of us. It is not fair to leave us  so young.

Her love for people was endless. Her laugh and her admiration of the nature were contagious.

Jitka will be missed very much by all who knew her, but she will stay in our hearts forever.

We got to know Jitka and Frank through our friends Dan and Tom. We became closer to 'Muchas Senior' once they left New York and began spending more time in Prague. With both our families living abroad, we felt we'd gained surrogate parents.

The generation gap soon dissolved—friends become friends, no matter how you find them. We had many fun times together at concerts, in restaurants and in our homes. Or just walking in the woods.

Jitka was always so warm, with a great big welcoming smile, sparkling eyes and infectious laugh. Always interested in our lives and happiness, she was generous and loving—just wonderful to be around. We expected her to be with us for many more years.

We are both deeply sorry that she's gone. We'll cherish our fond memories.

With much love to you all, Angus & Šárka
 

 Jitka had several passions, including bird watching, gardening, hiking, music etc. One of her more passionate passions was making me, her husband, go hiking or even just walking up and down mountains, hills, cities, be it Dolomites, High Tatras, Krkonose, Catskills, favellas of Rio, Alaska, Seven Sisters in Dover or French, Italian or Czech countryside. It allowed me to live a healthy life and also complain bitterly about being pushed around, while quietly I was happy to do her bidding and enjoyed every minute of every outing.

This one on a nice vacation in Moravia  - hiking  "Praded" in Czech mountains Jeseniky  - Jitka in her domain.