Happy Chinese New Year! “How many languages do you speak?” When I met Charles Novacek he spoke seven languages fluently and was working on number eight – Chinese. He said China was becoming a major economy and over a billion people spoke the language. Learning Mandarin would give him intellectual stimulation and would be advantageous …
Reading books aloud to each other isn’t just for kids! It has benefits for all ages. Listening to books read aloud sharpens focus, improves reading and listening skills, increases vocabulary, and activates imagination. In fact, studies show reading aloud to adults stimulates brain activity, provides socialization and may help to lessen symptoms of dementia, Alzheimer’s, …
Charles (Karel) Novacek, 1947 Vlasta Jakubová, the sister of my late husband Charles (Karel) Novacek was born on March 13, 1925 in Oždany, Slovakia. During World War II she was engaged in the Czech resistance as a contact to her uncle, Colonel Josef Robotka. After February 1948, she joined the anticommunist resistance, again working with her …
Serious illness this fall has kept me at home and given me the opportunity to sift through files of old correspondence. Much of it is related to my late husband Charles and his memoir and is sentimental in nature. . . old love letters, ticket stubs, postcards. . . Although I’ve gone through and thrown …
In my online research I found “White Blossoms,” an opinion piece by Milan Hanuš.* The subject was Charles’ sister Vlasta and the pain she experienced while being imprisoned for her work in the Czech Resistance during the Cold War. Hanuš declared how shameful it is that the Czech public doesn’t listen more to those who deserve to …
I keep thinking about Charles‘ sister Vlasta Marie Nováčková Jakubová (1925-2017). Sadly, she died this year at the age of ninety-two. Vlasta was three years older than Charles and started her work in the Czech anti-Nazi resistance at age fourteen during World War II. She worked for her uncle Josef Robotka’s Rada Tri (R-3) guerilla organization. She …
