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- «b»MUDr Diana ŠPIČKOVÁ-PETŘÍKOVÁ
«/b»Diana recalls her happy childhood in the family house U Mrázovky 7 and the summer vacations at the summerhouse with a large garden in Pikovice, a small village and recreational community at the bank of the river Sázava south of Praha. Amongst her cherished childhood memories are those of her aunt (really grandaunt) Olga (roz. ZÁTKOVÁ), and her beloved grandmother Bohumila
("bábu"). This affectionate nickname meaning "grandmother" or "old woman" in Russian dates
back to the time when her grandchildren started to learn Russian in school. She gracefully
accepted it, and in fact probably liked it.
Diana' childhood was sheltered, protected from the shocks of political and social events.
The children looked forward to grandaunt Olga's regular visits. Childless Olga loved her grandnephews and her grandniece like her own children, who particularly enjoyed her readings of
fairytales. Their grandmother "bábu" was a kind, selfless and utterly modest person. Her
health was anything but robust and she would hide her ailments to avoid others to worry about
her, achieving just the opposite. Ultimately it was always her doctor son-in-law Hilar [II], who
pulled her back to health.
Diana learned to play piano, but did not persevere like her brother Daniel. She enjoyed
horse riding in the same riding school as Daniel and myself. She graduated from the secondary
school in «i» 1957«/i», at an incredibly young age of sixteen. Our school year was the first one to be hit
by the reforms of the notorious Dr Zdeněk Nejedlý the first communist minister of education.
Nejedlý introduced a unified system of education, which used as a guiding principle the lowest
common denominator. All curricula were rewritten and history was remade. Undoubtedly, the
worst hit by the reform was the secondary level. In the same year Diana was accepted at the
Faculty of Medicine at the Karlova University, School of Dentistry. The first two pre-clinical years
were common for both the Dentistry and the General Medicine programs. This is when and where
we met and started to date in the fall «i» 1959«/i».
From there on our live stories have intertwined. The Dentistry program was one year shorter than the General Medicine program. Diana obtained her diploma in «i» 1962, «/i»at a time when the graduates had virtually no say in job selection. She had to accept a job in a town of Chomutov near the border with Eastern Germany. By the ancient king's invitation the town and the whole region had been settled by German colonists, mostly during 14th and 15th centuries. Prior to that, the region had been sparsely populated. Archeological evidence shows succession and intermingling of both German and Slavic cultures.
At the founding of the independent Czechoslovak state in «i» 1918«/i», and for the duration of the "First republic", the region was ethnically overwhelmingly German, and had been known as "Sudeten" (Sudety). On weekends «b»D«/b»iana used to come to Praha, and in turn I went to Chomutov to visit her, though less frequently. Although the mountainous, wooded country of Krušné Hory surrounding the town is beautiful, it is a region of large superficial deposits of bituminous ("brown") coal with large content of sulphur. The deposits extend across the border into the Germany. To satisfy the hunger for energy the whole area had been turned into a moonscape of strip-mines. The process was ruthless, with no respect for, and no consideration of historical and existing social structures and cultural heritage. Environment and nature had not been even considered an issue. More than 80 villages (true historically documented figure) had been razed and people with century-old roots in the countryside were mercilessly and forcefully relocated. In order to increase the efficiency, the coal was burned on site in several power plants. It became probably the worst environmental nightmare in the Central Europe of «i» 1950s. «/i»Acid rain destroyed forests not only in the Czechoslovakia, but also in several neighboring countries. The incidence of respiratory illnesses competed with those in the worst polluted areas in the world. The public health warnings of not opening windows did not stop a layer of fine ash to get in the houses and cover everything. I remember one cross-country skiing trip with Diana in then still beautiful nearby mountains, when the snow felt gritty like sandpaper. In spite of the shortage of doctors and dentists in the whole region, the system did not bother to provide them with decent living accommodations. Diana worked in Chomutov until our wedding in «i»1966«/i», when she married myself, «b»MUDr Petr PETŘÍK «/b»on «i» February 11, 1966 «/i»in Praha.
Thanks to social networking rife in all Soviet client Communist countries, her mother «b»Eva «/b»secured her a position of a dentist in a small town of Suchdol at the outskirts of Praha. With no hope to find an apartment we moved in with my mother at Jungmannova street. This temporary solution thankfully lasted barely six months. On «i» September 30, 1966 «/i»I was permitted to leave the
country to start a scholarship at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Incredibly, my permit
allowed me to stay in Switzerland for 2 full years. Diana had to wait two months for the permission granting her a short visit. Finally, in «i» November 1966 «/i»she rejoined me in Lausanne. We
never went back.
Our two and half years in Lausanne had been one extended honeymoon. In spite of having very little, we were exalted by the beauty of the country, the neatness and order, abundance of everything, and a newly found freedom. We were in love and we could finally start our own life. At the beginning we lived very modestly, our only source of income having been my scholarship stipend. However, as soon as Diana passed a practical examination in Dentistry, she
was allowed to work in the Swiss Public Dental system. She got a job in the Lausanne School
Dental program. Our economical situation immediately and markedly improved. With Diana
working, we bought an ancient VW beetle and went for simple vacations to France and to Italy.
On weekends we went skiing and hiking in the nearby Jura Mountains and Alps. Of course, all
this was at a very low budget, but for us it was something beyond imagination until then. Diana
really enjoyed the work and the work environment, and met there a good friend. Also, her French
had dramatically improved. She would have been happy to stay in Switzerland.
As the end of my scholarship was approaching I was offered a permanent staff position at
the Department of Histology and Embryology at the University of Lausanne, with a good prospect
of advancement. Yet the situation in the department was such that I could not imagine staying
there. Another issue was that of a language. Although my French was excellent, virtually all the
scientific interactions in Switzerland were conducted in German, and my German was poor with
little hope for improvement in French-speaking Lausanne.
From the moment I left Czechoslovakia I harbored a desire to go to Canada. The rational part of this wish was to put an ocean between us and the Communist Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. Switzerland appeared to be just too close. Also, Switzerland had been known as a country where assimilation was very difficult. At that time even second and third generation
immigrants were considered foreigners. On the top of it, the process of recognition of my medical
diploma appeared at that time very complicated.
Yet, there was also an intangible, a dream from my youth of idealized Canadian wilderness, legacy of the Ernest Thompson Seton's Woodcraft ideal I grew up with, and the many books I read. I was also well aware of the high-caliber research in Canada and USA, and of the openness of the North American society compared to a very closed one of Switzerland. Following
the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact forces on «i» August 20, 1968«/i», our application for immigration to Canada was fast-tracked and on «i» December 30, 1968 «/i»we left Switzerland for
Quebec City, where I was offered and accepted a teaching position at Laval University.
This decision totally changed the lives of both of us. It brought disappointment and hardship for Diana. In spite of our attempts to find reliable information in Switzerland about Diana's prospects to work as a dentist in Canada, it was only after out arrival to Quebec to when we found out about all the obstacles on the way. For a foreign trained dentist to pass the examinations required for application for a license to practice Dentistry in Canada was virtually impossible. The reason was that the concepts and the practice of Dentistry in North America differed very significantly from those in Europe. Also, it was next to impossible to gain admission in a School of Dentistry, which had only several spots reserved for foreign graduates. And there was a very long waiting list. An opportunity we regretfully missed had arisen in «i» 1969«/i», when the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of University of Toronto was a Czech with deep sympathy of the newly arrived Czech colleagues. He fled Czechoslovakia either in «i» 1938 «/i»(Nazi occupation) or in «i»1948 «/i»(Communist takeover); which I cannot recall. He succeeded in the creation of a program at the U of T solely for the Czech and Slovak dentists who arrived in Canada in «i» 1968. «/i»The program fast-tracked them through the training and prepared them for the examinations, which all participants successfully passed. The catch was that the graduates had to take a job in a remote community in the northern Ontario in need of a dentist. At that time, with my position at Laval University in Quebec City, this condition appeared insurmountable.
Both our sons were born in Quebec City during those years:
«b»A«/b») «b»David William Peter PETRIK «/b»«i» (born on August 17, 1970), «/i»and «b»
B) Christopher Hilary Andrew PETRIK «/b»«i» (born on January 27, 1972).
«/i»With no family support and help, caring alone for our first-born David, her isolation wasalmost complete. We both struggled with sometimes hard-to-understand Quebec French patois, so strikingly different from the French we got used to in Switzerland.
In «i» 1972 «/i»we moved to Calgary, Alberta, where I started residency in Pathology, and the
following year we moved again to Edmonton, where I finished my training and started to build up
my medical career. During those years our means were quite modest. With an unparalleled
ingenuity and dedication Diana was able to create a beautiful and wonderfully warm and
comfortable home for our children and myself.
In Edmonton, where we ultimately stayed for 28 years, she founded her own very successful program in Aerobic dance, and she run fitness classes for several decades. There she made faithful friends. We have always done all our activities together; now there were also David and Chris. For six summers in a row we kept returning to the Churchill River and adjacent lakes on wilderness on canoeing expeditions with the boys from their tender age. We cross-country skied in Edmonton area, and hiked and skied in the Rockies. In «i» 1989 «/i»we bought a condominium in Canmore. This added another dimension to our lives. We have used every opportunity to hike and ski in the mountains. In «i» 1999 «/i»we built our current house in Canmore, where we moved the following year, when I officially retired from my professional activities in Edmonton. Edmonton had been good to us; we lived there for almost 30 years, and we brought up there our family.
(«u»Source«/u»: «i»From Petr PETRIK: "«b»FAMILY CHRONICLE: Family of Diana Špičková«/b»" «/i»)
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1940 - (83 let)
