It is funny what can stir a memory. General Elections in Slovakia don’t normally cause a stir, and yet the result of last week’s election made it into most of the UK media and, as a consequence, caused a stir in my memory. For the media, it was the election of Robert Fido as Prime Minister. He is a pro-Putin politician, and part of his election manifesto was to stop providing aid to Ukraine. I cannot believe that would be a good thing. However Slovakia is very dependent on EU monies, so maybe he will be slightly curtailed in what he feels able to do.
My stirred memories of Slovakia are many. Pigs are one memory. On my very first visit to Slovakia, I spent two hours in an intensive pig unit formerly run by the Russian communist occupiers. Now if this was smelly ‘So Me’, you might appreciate my dilemma. I love pigs, and once upon a time had a small herd of Vietnamese Pot Bellied pigs – possibly the first person in Wales to do so. But they had names, and as we were all vegetarian, we were never going to kill them for `Sunday lunch’. It was a dilemma, as we eventually sold the piglets to others and of course, you had no idea what they might do with them.
Bears are another memory. Until going to Slovakia I had never seen a real live bear in the wild. On my second trip there, I did. I had been invited to a dear colleague’s summer cottage for the weekend. I would have moved there in an instant. It was a small cottage; two bedrooms and a downstairs that was lounge, kitchen, dining room and bathroom. Some might say it was crude, me, I thought it was perfect. Best of all was seeing the little black bears coming out of the forest opposite the garden to steal the plums off their tree. I had never been up close and personal with a bear before. It was an intimate moment never to be forgotten.
The colleague I was visiting at that time was what I thought of as the almost indefatigable Alzebta Hanzlikva. She was a lady about whom I used to think, if I could be half as good as her, I might be able to make a bit of a difference. I met Alzbeta in a pre J world and I was stunned by her purple hair. Many years later I married a lady who doesn’t just have purple hair, but multi-coloured rainbow hair. It is her thing. Wherever and whatever J is doing, she does it with her head held high. J has taught me the power of authenticity, and she is one of the most authentic persons I have ever met.
Back to Alzbeta. In 1995, the first ever conference I attended as a speaker was an ‘international’ nursing conference in Martin, Slovakia. I say international, but essentially, myself and my boss, were the only non-Slovakian folk in attendance. It was held at the Jessenius Faculty of Medicine - the medical and research division of the Comenius University. For many years after that first conference, I attended each subsequent conference and enjoyed some fun times travelling to and from Slovakia over those years.
Those early post communist days were wonderful and so different from life in the UK. Back then they really didn’t know what a vegetarian was, and thought I was completely foolish for not wanting to eat meat! They had never seen anyone wear clogs before, let alone brightly coloured ones. Eventually, I became part of the scientific committee that organised the conference. Every year it grew in terms of the number of papers being presented and started to attract several more academic colleagues from outside of Slovakia. Although I had to participate through an interpreter, it was a great community of nurses to be a part of.
As with all things, I eventually stopped attending the conference, so I was surprised in 2015 to be invited to attend and present a paper. At first, I didn’t want to attend, but was persuaded by one of my old PhD students from Hungry and also a long-time supporter of the conference, that I should go. So once more I took the overnight train from Prague and pitched up at the conference. What I didn’t know was I had been asked to attend for a special reason. I was there to be part of a memorial conference that celebrated the life and work of Alzbeta. She had died in 2012. Her life’s work was in promoting the profession of nursing and she was passionate about ensuring the education of nurses was evidence-based, and scientific in orientation. Alzbeta was an inspirational lady, who really had a 'can do' approach to life. She started to learn English aged 50, as she realised that English was the ‘official language of science’ and she needed to get her research papers published in English language journals. The memorial conference acknowledged her impact on nurse education, not just in Slovakia but much further afield. She championed the advancement that research could bring and tirelessly worked at enabling nurses to gain their PhD.
And at the conference, I was surprised to see my name appear in a presentation with many others whose work was being recognised by the award of a Gold Medal of Merit. I was duly presented with my medal for my contribution to university education for nurses in Slovakia. I was both immensely proud and humbled in equal manner. The last official act on that day was the unveiling of a memorial plaque in the entrance hall of the School of Nursing. I am not sure what Alzbeta would have thought about this very public recognition of her life and work, as she was a very modest person. My feeling was that it was a very appropriate, and somewhat affectionate, and a well deserved sign of how much her work meant to so many people. There will be others like her in Slovakia, and perhaps they will collectively work in promoting kindness, compassion and hope rather than hate
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