Marriage Stories

A twenty-one-year-old machine fitter and a one-year-older shop assistant have created a naturally harmonious, even archetypal model of a partner relationship. Besides his job and family, the more dynamic Pavel managed to spare some time for his numerous hobbies while Ivana took up the position of his benevolent, understanding supporter from the very beginning. Except for the first years of marriage when the family was struggling with economic problems, she was a housewife and a real keeper of the hearth and home, living primarily for the success, interests and problems of her close ones. Her approach became even more meaningful after the revolution which opened new horizons for Pavel’s enterprising spirit while their children, older Dominik and younger Růženka, both of whom inherited the active nature of their father, were growing up.

“We wanted to get married anyway and the child only made it quicker”. Perhaps it was too quick; seventeen-year-old Mirka just got apprenticed as a hairdresser while nineteen-year-old Antonín worked as a dispatcher. The first years of their marriage gave no promise of a great future; on one hand, there was a young mother deprived of the freedoms and fun of her contemporaries, complaining about the insufficient involvement of her husband; on the other hand, there was a young father trying to secure his family and once, perhaps, even a housing of their own. Tired of compromising and discontented with the monotony of early adulthood, in the course of years Mirka and Antonín managed to turn their marriage into a reasonable relationship, finding realization in their jobs, bringing up two children and becoming grandparents.

Architecture students Ivana (21) and Vašek (24) never once thought about whether and how family life and professional ambitions were to be combined. With complete naturalness and admirable dynamism, they decided to manage both; they had five children, built a house and started a business. In their urgent need to work, construct and create, they made claims on themselves and their environment that were so high that they inevitably reached beyond the limits of the possible. The world they have created is admirable and consuming at the same time; they price they have paid for it is high. Yet they have managed to keep the most precious thing: their relationship.