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, …
In 1938, ten year old Charles was fascinated by this monumental tree on the edge of his town’s renaissance castle garden. Locals in Náměšť nad Oslavou, Charles’ home during World War II era Czechoslovakia, claimed the Pedunculate oak was nearly a thousand years old. Today the tree, aka Žižka’s Oak, stands about 79 feet high …
I promised Charles we’d get the memoir he’d written published. But he died leaving the unpublished manuscript and a grieving wife. I feared I’d never fulfill my promise. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t focus. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get my grief and concentration to mix. My heart was broken and I …
Last Sunday I exhibited Charles’ book, Border Crossings: Coming of Age in the Czech Resistance at an Author’s Fair celebrating local authors, Detroit-centered books, and the city of Detroit. Charles was a Detroit immigrant, engineer, artist and writer and worked and lived in the city for 50+ years. I figured his book was qualified to be there. While preparing for …
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 …
