The engine slammed, the car doors opened. We arrive at zero. From the chauffeur, you only have one step and you are in Moravia. The fellow colleague is just as close to the Slovak chest. The home of this locality "laughs" at the lagoon. It creates a sharp, artificially molded outline on the map. There is a Slovak railway station, a few meters away from the Czech abandoned building - once a hotel. Our car between them.

The words of Rázus' Mother are pressed into the mouth: the station is deserted, the station is still silent ... Still, a gentle, stinging rain and a "spirit" of the mist, which has left the valley since the early morning. October in the picturesque Kopanici village Vrbovce can be both rude and colorful.

On the third track, the motorbike breathes. One hour goes to Velka nad Veličkou, there are six times a day. The train and the whole station guard the guide. Peron is empty. The wounded in the coat sits on the bench, in one hand the book, in the second cigarette. Apparently a well-time killer. The biggest flush is in the morning, perhaps thirty people. And in the opposite direction at this time - in Myjavu, New Town. And then, when people return from robots, from doctors, from shopping, from home school. Otherwise there is boring. It was not a division of states. Where are the times ... If the station was built closer to the village, it would be alive. But it would not be a railway lagoon again. The guy pulls herself out of another cigarette. Debate on an empty platform is a rare thing for her.

Kopanice po "vrbofčansky"

Officials learn that kicks are scattered settlements that originated for recultivation and land use for agricultural purposes. In some cases, the soil was "rebuilt" even where it had previously been leaked. This definition is confirmed by the view of Vrbovce from the birds perspective. It is unbelievable that today the village has up to 60 seats - satellites, solitary ones that make up two or three houses plus farm yards. In the middle of the 19th century, there were even one hundred and at that time 5,996 inhabitants lived in Vrbovce! Today is a quarter. Vrbovce is an elegant example of a kicker, but where to place them? To myjavsky, as administratively belong to myjavsky district? Or to the badge, because even in Senica is it a jump? And or the other independent copanator unit that fits the border with Moravia and is emotionally close to it?

"We do not want to divide, but to connect, so we have close to everything around. Even to Myjave, although it is behind the hill, and we are not territorial in the traditional Myjavan kicks. Zahorie is back in the mountains, but we do not mind, and we like them too. And the connection with the Moravian border? Maybe from the point of view of landscape relief, it does not, but folks, folk traditions, folklore - this is very close to us. Interestingly, the difference in this small region also speaks out. When they meet the Záhorák, Myjavčan and Vrbovčan, everyone is talking about how his mouth grows, they understand, but it is not the same, "says Mayor Vrboviec, Samuel Redech, in a debate.

He enjoys the legendary Hrušín

The people are in charge of the 4th term, and the last, according to his words. "It's time to post the relay, though the caretaker is a beautiful mission. In Vrbovce I am home, young I left school behind, and after forty-one I came back. I hate a second. I do not want to sit in the car and I'm walking around this beautiful copany region. I will stop on the hill as in the movie Village Rudolf Hrušínský, I stretch my hand wide, swim and I get. I can not get tired. It's an amazing view of what nature and history has done to us, "says Redecha.

From the heart of the village, which local locals called "mjesto, mjestečko" (although the city's status did not get), we move to the satellites. Which one of those sixty to choose? First, a control question for the mayor - does it know all? "Of course, but all of them would be a problem. Some houses are abandoned, demographics will not be released. Older people, who do not know how to take care of themselves, come to the village, to families. But they are also rounder, hard roots, which, despite the diseases, remain, they live. Gradually, they are being converted by cottages, we have about fifty families in the village. "

Asphalt twists up. It is in good condition, although a bit narrow. For winter and snow milling at two meters of snow just fine. We cross the village of Chodúri, we miss the building of a former small class. At the time they were five scattered throughout the Willow kicks, and in 1953 they built a nine-grade elementary school in the center of Vrboviec. We get on the horizon, in front of us, the corrugated corridors, the beautiful view. In the distance where the house is covered with tree-trees in autumn tangle of colors. This can not be imagined, it must be seen. On the left, U Marečku, turn to the stone path, later on. The name Mareček, Marečková is one of the most frequented in Vrbovce. The mayor has around thirty people in the mobile and each nickname for each. To make them know how to recognize them.

The loneliness of Aunt Zuzka

"What did you get to the old Baba to take pictures of, I will not let it go," Ms. Zuzana Mareckova, "Humenčárka", welcomes us in its kingdom. In April, she will have eighty and most of the girls, and she goes to the house in U Blažků settlement. Fifty-five years ago. Today she stayed alone, all survived. With his head on his head, his hands together and sadness on his soul, he sits on the chameleon at the pie, interpreting the thirsty, painful way of life. He does not know if he will be there for the next winter, but he knows he is here at home. And he has good people around him. "What am I already? I'm sitting, waiting and waiting. And that there is so much here? I think I can pray well, "she added, and her fingers crawled on walnuts.

When we got the mayor's assassination that Marecek's name was probably gone, he picked up his cell phone, followed by a quick phone call and his insistence: "Let's get it!" We're going back to the "smaller" flat. In the door, our hands are handed to us by a nice, smiling and hospitable elderly lady, of course in the costume: "Hello, I'm here Zuzka Mareckova from Kolibiš." We have not been to the marshals with the surname Marečkovci since.

Americans and $ 50

The life story of Zuzka Mareckova was like the first copywriter. Strict parental hand, miles to school, in the snow, in the dark, in the field, in the field, in the field, in the goat, in the goose, in the young bride, in the pain of the death of a single son and later in a man. Loneliness alone at Kolibisky, sadness in the heart ... Nevertheless, it was a great experience to meet this woman. At the very least, you should open the trade to life optimism. "I was four years old, it was summer 1944, the harvest ended, and we and my sisters grazed the goose. Suddenly, I saw the plane fly over the mountain and began to fall. It was like to us. They were American soldiers. Those who did, jumped with parachutes, did not open one. The airplane broke and he did not survive. He lied immobilely on the field, and the whole village rushed to him. The father took the body to the horse carriage, took him to the fire brigade and buried the Willow Cemetery. After the war, gentlemen came to such a luxury car, the Americans. My mother was born in New York and she lived there in eleven years. She knew very well English, probably the only one to see the tragedy. The gentlemen spoke to her, asking what had happened. When they poured her, they put $ 50 into her hand-for helping them take care of their soldiers' funeral. Mom and your money did not take it. She told them to help us without money. That's what I loved. She was tough and she taught me a lot. "

Fugitives

Mrs Zuzana finally decided to leave the house alone, by the way only in the Kolibiská village, and return to the village. One year after the death of her husband, she had a horror scene. "I used to live there alone. Me, house, barn, farm yard, dogs, nothing more. I recognized every corner, started every shout, noticed every change. One morning the dogs breathed wildly, as if they were dragging me to the barn. I will go there and what I see: cigarette hurricanes, nappy papers, straw, food residue ... The refugees were - these were the wild times of the nineties, they were hiding in the barn. I did not know them, but I was afraid. I locked myself in the house, staring at the window. I was not afraid of myself, but that it would burn the barn! For there was all the wealth ... "In 1998, she decided definitely. Today, housing would not be changed in the apartment, even though it is also in Kolibisky.

In Vrbovce, we were lucky for humans, and the hero from the barn dusted in memories of, for example, pre-mores. When she went out, her mother carefully cared for the family to remain in shame. "The right bride had to have her dress on her wedding dress, let the bastard say she came with her bare ass. The pens were also equipped with two cushions and four pillows for two beds. We were four girls and our manka cared about it, "added Zuzana, who fed for a long time to the cooperative and then made it in the Myavawa armature. When she returned home in the evening, she sat down at the sewing machine and stitched the costume. Friends, known and aliens. She was tired, broken, but she could not say no. "I was overwhelmed by the courage - what a donkey ?! What was wrong with that robot? It's not enough, I'm so, "- Zuzka Marečková of Kolibísk.

The village that is sewing costumes

Costumes. Those Willow would deserve a special chapter. They are part of the history, creativity and identity of this community. People are more sensitive to them. And when they gradually began to escape from social and everyday life - thanks to modern times - a great idea was born. Within the framework of cross-border cooperation, a project with the message "Although everyone in another costume, friendship will join us", was signed by Vrbovce and Moravian village Vrbice from Břeclav district. Seamless machines have been bought from the funds, many have been approached by experts, good advice and experience. The result? Today there are three male and three female Newborn costumes in the property of the village and they lend them to the interested. The demand for costumes has grown and seen again at weddings, festive occasions, at church ...

"He was living differently on soccer. More complicated, harder, but even cheerful. As children, we did not have to help with livestock before going to school, but we walked there, in winter skiing. During the week, it was easy to see what the country had - potatoes in a hundred ways, cabbage and home-made bread. Only on Sunday, the meat and the chicken were soup, although thanks to our father and his craft we were not afraid, "he remembers the childhood and youth lived in loneliness U Lulu Anna Horňáková, head of the general office in Vrbovce.

Loneliness is a sea of ​​remembrance

She moved to the town as a fifteen-year-old parent's house already owned by new owners, but she still pulls her home. "It can not be deleted from memory. It's a memorial. We were alone alone, but if needed, everyone had come to help. After the evenings, the feathers were singing, singing, cooking, and plum brandy, especially plum brandy. At the time of grain picking, a crumb and a simple soup of everything that fell into the pot - the so-called "chachrňa" - was boiled. When our father, who worked in Ostrava, brought a television in the 60s, a half-digger came to us. He had a big lady wheel, it was the Delta brand, and we went out of joy to go mad. "

According to Anne Horňák's words, the natural displacement of the kicker can not be avoided. The elders go out for eternity, and the young seek their employability in larger cities, which is the case of her two sons. A helping hand, however, is paradoxically given by people from towns, cottages. Those abandoned houses renovate, decorate, preserve their original relief, identity. "They are coming to what we know for a long time that kicks are a gift," added Anna Horňáková.

Radovan Stoklas

Martin Pavlík