Merry Christmas, Everyone!
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• 5 minutes 51 seconds
• My mother always instilled in me the need for a good education. She wanted me to have an education in home economics. In those days, my mom couldn’t conceive of a woman attaining a university education. During the socialist era, the importance of serving the greater good was valued above individual needs. My mother believed that secretaries would always be needed in the workforce, and that was her job after World War II. Many woman from that era felt their place was in the home. The fact that she had a job was even frowned upon by the old establishment. In a way, my mother was ahead of her time. Low wages paid by the socialist state drove most women into the workforce after the second world war, to earn the badly needed secondary income for the family.
• Socialism promised to make everyone’s life easier. But as time went on it was clear that was not going to happen. As a child I even believed in the propaganda. I watched my mother toil late into the night after she finished at the office. I spent much of my time helping her. She was a tiny woman, eternally bent over due to scoliosis. Because of her ailments her body aged prematurely. I only remember my mother with platinum white hair. I grew up fearing that she would die at any time. I don’t remember her smiling a lot, and she certainly never laughed. Her face concealed any happiness she may have experienced as a young girl.
• I would constantly bring home stray cats from the yard across from our house. Even though we hardly had food, my mother always find something to give them. She would give me one Koruna (around 5 cents today) to go to the butcher’s store and buy the cheapest meat – usually the spleen. She would cook it and I would feed it to my four legged friends. I’d even go to the school cafeteria and ask them for leftovers so I could feed them. I’d spend hours in that yard just watching the strays scavenging and playing. My mother eventually came to understand my love for animals.
• My father was an intellectual, who also wrote poetry in his spare time. He tried to write plays, but that didn’t quite pan out. He was an antiquarian – an scholar of old books – one of only three experts in Czechoslovakia. We had access to a wide array of books that most people did not. We were all avid readers and literature was certainly my second love. If I wouldn’t have become a veterinarian I probably would have worked with books in some capacity. The cultural sector, as it was called, paid the lowest salaries, so only the love for his job kept my father immersed in his profession. Unfortunately my father did not pass his expertise onto us, which was a pity. But I am thankful that he instilling in me the love of arts, literature, poetry, and opera.
If you missed the previous posts on Kende, then click on these links:
• 9 minutes 56 seconds
• Postscript from Gabriel Dusil • Isn’t my mom so cute, at two and a half years old? The major challenge in this photo was recovering touch-ups done by the photographer – It was a common method of “enhancing” the photos back then. You can see in the restoration video that when I zoomed in to her face, the eyes and eyebrows had been accented by ink pen. The challenge is to reproduce what is underneath. I’m not an artist, so I don’t quite have a grasp of manually reproducing facial features. Thankfully, my mom is an artist, so over Skype we hashed out what I needed to do. Eventually we got the eyes and mouth just right. Thanks Mamička. Love you ♥
• Postscript from my Mom • 2014 October • This photo was taken at Krmanova 3, Košice on the day of Attila’s wedding to Anka.
• 9 minutes 40 seconds
• Postscript from Eva Dusil • 2014 October • This is a family photo, taken on my father’s 71st birthday. From left standing: my uncle Csaba Kende, Ladislav (Lacko) Kende, my aunt Marta Kolos, Anka Kendeova, and Attila Kende holding Tomas Kende. Sitting, Valeria Kendeova, Ingrid Kende, Iveta Kende, Stefan Kende, my cousin Zsusanna Kolos holding Peter Kende, Viera Kende holding Richard Kende.
• 3 minutes 31 seconds
“Ultimately the purpose of life boils down to one question:
What do your children think of you?
Our highest value is to live in the memory of our children.”
Karol Dusil
• All three Dusil brothers were competitive and ambitious. This may have been due to genetics and partly because of their environment. All three brothers were denied many things growing up; They’re father wasn’t around during their formidable years so their mother carried the boys through their teenage years and into manhood. The repressive communist regime, was also a contributing factor, where a capitalist definition of ambition was prohibited. My uncle once told me they felt persecuted by the repressive communist regime. The best way for them to get back at them was to get the most out of iron curtain’s education system and use that to thrive in the West. All the Dusil brothers made a tremendously positive mark in this world, using their own resourcefulness, intelligence, and determination.
• One year after the Warsaw Pact Invasion, the two youngest brothers saw their opportunity to escape the regime. The oldest of the three had already settled in Sweden with no plans to return. After they emigrated a local journalist wrote about the Dusil brothers – In so many words he said that they took advantage of the communist education system and abandoned Košice Judo. It’s worth noting at this point that higher education in the communist regime was free. Often candidates were accepted into university, not based on their scholastic achievements, but based on the position their father held in the communist party. Of the 150 students that started in my uncle’s engineering class, only 50 finished. The journalist may have been politically pressured to write the article, although this has never been confirmed. In retrospect, the property their father owned, confiscated by the communists in 1948, would have covered the Harvard education tuition fee for all three boys.
• The brothers fought a lot, but stuck together when necessary. My dad’s temperament was closer to his mother’s, and the youngest brother was somewhere in between. The oldest brother was most similar in personality to their father. My father was the most sensitive of the three boys. My uncle once said to me, “You could easily hurt his soul”.
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• 8 minutes 47 second
• In my third year of veterinary studies, Prague Spring began. It was January of 1968 and Alexander Dubček was at the forefront of the reforms. Some of the leaders rallied behind him, wanting to give communism a human face. It felt like fresh air was blowing though the country. We began to lift our heads in hopes of a better future. The older generation was cautious but everyone else was optimistic. Eight months later the Soviets decided they had enough and sent 200,000 troops to clamp down on our aspirations. One month after that Warsaw Pact Invasion my son, Gabriel was born.
• Soon after the invasion, a mass exodus began. We decided to leave everything and everyone behind. In October 1969 I was supposed to begin my fifth year of veterinary studies. We fled the country instead. This was only possible because of the general chaos during those few months. There were relaxed procedures in the government agencies responsible for issuing travel visas. My parents were devastated by our plans, but still supported us. Vašek and I assured my mother that I would finish university, but we had no idea how we would fulfill that promise. First and foremost we had to focus on survival and take care of our baby. We believed that as long as we had two healthy hands we would survive.
• There was no looking back. Our flight took us through Paris, where we spent nine weeks waiting for approval to immigrate to Canada. Coming from an authoritarian regime, we thought we had to choose a province. With pressure from the immigration officer, we chose Saskatoon, Saskatchewan because they had a veterinary college. She encouraged us to choose an agricultural province. On the 9th of November 1969 we arrived in the beginning of a freezing cold winter. We met other Slovaks including my favorite professor from Košice, František Hrudka. He had also immigrated! By this time he was lecturing at the University of Saskatchewan. The people we met were supportive and ready to help us, but I felt lonely. Vašek was gone most of the day looking for a job and I was left alone with Gabriel, and nobody to talk to.
• On one occasion a local Slovak family invited us for dinner. I told them I wanted to continue with my veterinary studies. “Well, you’ll be the only female veterinarian in Canada” was their reply. Suddenly I felt that we came to some backward country. But I soon realized that they didn’t know much about veterinary medicine. It was true that there were few women in the profession, but I didn’t lose hope. Meanwhile, back home my mother listened to criticism that all her sacrifices had been wasted, and that I didn’t finish my studies. After ten long days in Saskatoon, we realized that we were in a free country, and could go wherever we wanted. The layers were shedding from the repressive regime we left. We were no longer prisoners of the state. We contacted Manpower and with their help we moved to Toronto, Ontario to join my brother-in-law, and his family. Within a few days we were happily reunited and I was surrounded by family. We lived together in a rented house, attended English language classes together. Vašek worked part time at a car wash with his brother. We took turns babysitting, while the other attended English lessons. Vašek was also studying for his provincial veterinary exams which he passed without difficulties.
Today commemorates the 46th anniversary of our arrival to Canada.
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• 6 minutes 14 seconds
• Postscript from Eva Dusil • 2014 October • Here is my cute son, Gabičko. He had his first birthday in Paris. During our stay in France, you had this red sweater with a leather front.
• 3 minutes 38 seconds
Here is my latest photo restoration and video editing project, in memory of father, Vaclav ‘Taci’ Dusil.
| Collage |
14 hours |
The concept of this layout came to me a few months ago, one evening just before I fell asleep. The first challenge was to get the black matte just right so that the design would size to my printer. I also needed to make sure the wings would settle neatly within the matte. Next was to group, scale and space the photos to the size of the angel wings. |
| Photo Montage |
72 hours |
Video editing was a tedious process. I had to essentially re-size each picture all over again – this time in Adobe Premiere Pro, then animate each photo in sequence to mosaic the wings. The ‘Taci’ animation was done in Adobe After Effects. |
| Photo Restoration | 198 hours |
There are 138 photos in total – 69 in each wing. The work spanned two months. Many of the original photos were annotated by my father. I initially used them in the collage, but I felt that the final layout was too messy with the added text. |
| Passion | ∞ hours |
My dad maintained a beautiful visual diary of his youth. It’s been a privilege to restore his photos, and create a lasting archive for my family. I’ve joined a group of individuals in the genealogy community, who have felt the emotion from that split second in time when a photo was taken. |
If you missed the other Taci posts, you can link to them here:
• 4 minutes 52 seconds
• 8 minutes 10 seconds
• 29 minutes 23 seconds
• Last December I surprised my sister by coming home for Christmas. While in Burlington, Ontario, Canada I had the privilege to train with Alica at the local TapouT MMA gym, Tapoutburlington.com. This is the forth and final workout we had together during that visit. On our final day we did a lot of sparring. So we worked on a few sparring strategies and techniques. Of course, we didn’t forget about our strength & conditioning, cardio, and core strength exercises. Check out the video below.
• I love my sister, and I’m very proud of her. She is an accomplished artist, and has her own company offering Landscape Design & Horticulture services, you can find her website here: DusilDesign.com. I love you, Ali 🙂
If you missed my Martial Arts posts, please click on them here:
• 10 minute 11 seconds
• This training methodology is straight from the workout sessions of Karel Ferus, who runs his own fitness club in Prague. Details can be found at fffc.cz or https://www.facebook.com/www.ferus.cz. If you live in Prague, or plan to visit sometime in the future, feel free to come and train with us. If you are interested in strength & conditioning, core strength, improving your cardio, or just want to learn some self defense, then come by. For more details then feel free to leave me a comment below.
Alica Dusil, Boxing, Burlington + Ontario + Canada, circuit training, conditioning, conditioning training, Dusil Design, Dusil Design & Landscape, dusil.com, dusildesign.com, Ferus Fitness Fight Club, fighting, fitness training + Prague, Gabriel Dusil, Karate, Karel Ferus, Kickboxing, Martial Arts, martial arts prague, Mixed Martial Arts, MMA, muay thai, Prague + Kickboxing, Prague + MMA, Praha + Kickboxing, self defense, strength + conditioning, Tapout, Tapout + Burlington, thai box, Thai Boxing
• We always want our children to be better than us. Some may interpret that to mean success through wealth, fame, or power. But it’s beyond that. I want my boys to be stronger than me. Emotionally, physically, and socially. I want them to survive in this world beyond what I could possibly achieve. I want them to make an impact on their world better than what I achieved. I want to give my boys what my father didn’t – to be their mentor.
• Even with emotional clarity, I always felt limited in my ability to reach the top tiers of success. I revered those that had mentors throughout their lives. I observed how a select few attributed their achievements to a mentor. I never had someone that would sit with me and assess my life and provide continual and persistent guidance. The only times I would be approached directly by a family member was when I was in crisis, or when I had done something horribly wrong. Those times I had been lectured and disciplined. The closest I had to a mentor in those years was my coach, Morris Vaillancourt*, and my girlfriend’s father, Conrad Brown. I respected them immensely – always listening to their words of wisdom, and lessons from life. They were mentors by example and in how they viewed life.
* Morris Vaillancourt, was the coach of the Burlington YMCA Swim Club. He is also a National Coach, Level I and II Clinic Conductor. In 1973 Morris was the Canada Games Coach and also held the position of Chairman of the Ontario Swimming Coaches Association. He has trained over 100 Provincial and National record holders.
If you missed other Gabičko posts, you can find them here:
• 5 minutes 17 seconds
• My dad was the men’s judo team leader and the head coach of Lokomotíva Košice throughout the 1960’s. He won a bronze medal in the 1960 junior nationals. As a senior, my dad always advanced to the final rounds in his weight category and typically ended just behind the medalists in 5th or 6th place. Even more difficult, my dad competed in the heavier weight class, to avoid fighting his older brother. In the early 1960’s, weight classes were up to 68kg (my dad’s fighting weight, in his prime), then up to 80kg and finally, 80+ kg. A judoka weighing 60 kg could compete in the 80+ kg category if desired. Everything being equal, typically the lighter fighter was at a disadvantage.
• Judo weight classes have been revised several times over the years. The weight classes were broader than those in boxing (in increments of 3 to 4 kg). So cutting weight by dieting or visiting a steam bath was far less common in judo than in boxing . Competitive tactics consisted mainly of focusing on the opponent’s weaknesses. Coach would shout tips during tournaments, such as which grip to use or throw to try. As residents of Košice, a city with a significant Hungarian minority, many knew a bit of that language, so tips during competition were frequently coded in Hungarian. On one occasion a referee tried to prevent one of the Košice coach’s to speak Hungarian during a match. An opposing coach complained that he did not understand. My uncle told him sharply, “learn other languages!” and he clammed up.
• My father and his teammates trained twice per week, in the original gym. As time passed they had more gym time and had proper judo tatami (the special mats needed to absorb the impact of a judo throw). By this time they trained three or more times per week. Women trained separately from the men. In the 1960’s the judo oddiel of Lokomotíva Košice peaked close to 100 members.
• I miss my dad tremendously. He would have celebrated his 73rd birthday today.
♥ Happy Birthday ♥ Taci ♥
I love you,
If you missed the other Taci posts, you can link to them here:
• 5 minutes 36 seconds
• 6 minutes 58 seconds
• Postscript by Gabriel Dusil • 2014 October • My dad and Igor Fridrich were best friends. Their friendship has also carried down to the next generation.
• Postscript by Eva Dusil • 2014 November • This photo were taken in the yard where Taci lived. It’s the winter of 1966, soon after we started dating (happy memories). The two boys are from the neighborhood and were also judoka that your father taught.
• During the communist era very few citizens of the eastern bloc were allowed to travel to the west, except for politicians and sportsmen. Travelling amongst countries such as East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia were allowed. But even that was difficult, since the authorities only allowed travel to the eastern block once every two years. Travel to the west on a Czechoslovakian passport required both a “vyjazdna dolozka” (an “exit visa” granted by the passport police) and an entry visa granted by the western country. Only after receiving the “vyjazdna dolozka” (specific to the country of destination) could the traveler apply for an “entry visa”. In addition, the traveler’s employment manager needed to approve the application.
• Top sportsmen from Czechoslovakia would have a number of STB minders when competing in western countries. STB, or “Štátna tajna bezpečnosť”, is Slovak for “State Secret Security”. Essentially they were the Czechoslovakian equivalent to the Russian KGB. STB minders were present as members of the Czechoslovakian delegation at events such as the Olympics, European or World championships. Despite these minders, some successfully defected to the embarrassment of the communist party – Martina Navratilova (tennis), Václav Nedomanský and Richard Farda (hockey), and many others. In the early 1960’s travel rules and political repression was a bit relaxed. But these political changes were not enough and this led to changes in the communist party hierarchy. It also resulted in the attempted reforms of the new General Secretary, Alexander Dubček, referred today as the Prague Spring. On the 21st of August 1968 the Soviet Union and four other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia to halt Dubček’s reforms. This meant in a renewed orthodox communist grip on Czechoslovakia for the next twenty years.
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News footage from the 21st of August 1968
• In 1969 my uncle requested travel to Paris, His boss asked what would happen to his children. My uncle lied, saying that his children would stay with their relatives. Essentially he was reassuring his boss that my cousins would remain home as “collateral deposit”. This was sufficient to reassure the authorities that the traveler would not defect. On that basis his manager approved their travel request. My uncle subsequently forged his children into the application. They obtained exit visas from the passport police, and then entry visas into France. Ten days later they “forgot” to return. The rest is history…
• 4 minutes 40 seconds
• Postscript by Eva Dusil • 2014 October • Gabičko, this a very cute photo when you were about two months old. I still remember Nanika commenting how well you were able to hold your head up. Love you, Mom, with happy memories.
• Postscript from me • 2014 October • I think I could have won the award for the roundest head in Czechoslovakia.
• 8 minutes 00 seconds
• Postscript by Eva Dusil • 2014 September • This photo was taken at Slavo Sykorsky’s villa in Košice, where we lived until we left Czechoslovakia in August 1969 and emigrated to Canada. Prior to Slavo’s place we lived in Pepo Vosecky’s apartment for short time. You were about four months old.
• Postscript from me • 2014 September • Look at that little baby… Precious!
• 8 minutes 19 seconds
• Postscript from Eva Dusil • 2014 October • These were taken in Košice on the day before we emigrated. We are at the bus station on our way to Bratislava to catch our flight to Paris the following day. In Bratislava we slept over at a rental apartment with Slavo and Milica Sykorsky. We arrived at Orly Airport in Paris, late in the afternoon on the 5th of September – on Vašek’s birthday. As we landed in France we finally felt free. Our first night was in a university dormatory, since the fall semester had not yet begun. You took your first steps that night. During the trip you had a bad cold, runny nose and fever, but a couple days after arriving in Paris you were fine.■ My father-in-law didn’t know that we were leaving, and later told us he would have informed the authorities.
Alexander Dubček, dusil.com, Eva Dusil, Eva Kendeova, Erika Dusil, Gabičko, Gabriel Dusil, Igor Fridrich, Karol Dusil, Lokomotiva Košice, Martina Navratilova, Pepo Vosecky, Prague Spring, Richard Farda, Robert Dusil, Slavo Sykorsky, STB, Stefan Bartus, Truncheon Law, Vaclav Dusil, Vašek Dusil, Václav Nedomanský, Vlado Makovsky, vyjazdna dolozka, Warsaw Pact invasion, Štátna bezpečnosť, Štátna tajna bezpečnosť
• Our earliest relationships shape our personality more than any that follow. Our adult personality forms significantly during our teenager years. Those traits are influenced by our partner as much as theirs are formed in front of our eyes. When we enter new relationships later in life, there is an inevitable divergence in that cerebral connection. As we get older it seems to be more difficult to find that compatibility, because our personalities are in constant divergence.
• Heather went on to veterinary studies at Guelph University. She was one of five volunteers from the Aldershot Animal Hospital who eventually became veterinarians. The others were Wayne Cot, Ellen Kinzl, Leann Benedetti, and Mary-Jane Ireland. Some came back to the animal hospital after graduating to work for my mom – this time as veterinarians. Some people are lucky enough to know what they want to be at a very young age. Heather knew that she wanted to help animals as early as eight years old. She now has a very successful clinic, and works very hard. I’m proud of her.
If you missed the previous posts on Heather, you’ll find them here:
• 6 minutes 44 seconds
Gabriel Dusil • Time Is Relentless 