After work, we had dinner and, after the meal, we sat on the porch. Grandma would sit with us children on the step by the front door, and I sat to her right side, leaning against the frame. At that time, I was not yet going to school. In that place, I felt secure from the whole world. That was the safest place for me and a moment of absolute certainty in my childhood life. Everything unpleasant that weighed down on me was completely powerless at that moment.
Years later, I remember one of Grandma's stories. She had still experienced her grandfather, who used to be visited by farmer Nový. The times were tense, Napoleon was rampaging. The two old men debated lively about the French invasion of Moscow through the Czech Republic. Grandfather concluded his opinion on Napoleon's actions in the whole world with this sentence: "You know, Johann, when I die and come to heaven, if I see that Bonaparte there – I won't hesitate that I'm in heaven – but I'll give him a whack with a stick!"
(P. Benedikt Holota OFM /* 1922/, What My Native Village Gave Me, Memories)
