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Miloš Bořkovec was born in 1922 in Prague, then Czechoslovakia. He was the eldest of three brothers of his parents Jan Bořkovec and Hermína Bořkovcová-Schererová. His two younger brothers were Alexej (also called Sáša or Sasha) and Ivan. Miloš had completed the Civil Engineering School in Prague in order to take over his father's construction business.

Marcela Bořkovcová was born as Vobořilová in Prague in 1927. She was the second child of Václav Vobořil and Marie Vobořilová-Mančalová. Her younger brother, whose name was also Miloš (also called Miloušek or Míša), had already died at school age. Marcela was trained as a modiste because she wanted to take over her mother's fashion business.

Miloš and Marcela met in the village Ostrov after the country was devastated by the Second World War and thrown into chaos by the Communists takeover. Ostrov is located in Bohemia, near Vlašim south of Prague, with a view on the Blaník mountain. According to a legend, an army of knights are sleeping in this mountain, which will free the Czech people when they are at its worst.

Marcela often stayed in Ostrov on holiday because her mother Marie was born there. Miloš and his brothers spent their holidays with relatives at the nearby Vitus mill (Vítův mlýn). Obviously, the three brothers visited the girls in the neighbouring village. During this time, Sasha left Czechoslovakia, and he settled later in America.

Miloš and Marcela married in Prague in 1952. Marcela took the name Bořkovcová and her only son Michal was born in 1956. They both worked as employees in Prague, because family businesses were not foreseen in the communist plan economy. However, they regularly visited the Vitus mill and Ostrov.

Marie, Marcela's mother, was also every summer in Ostrov with her new husband, Josef Vokoun. That is why her mother was later called Marie Vokounová-Mančalová. She spent most of her time playing cards with her relatives.

The invasion of the troops of the Waschau Pact after the Prague Spring of 1968 had prompted them to leave the country. Although they first wanted to go to America and meet Sasha, they stayed in Europe. They found their new home in Switzerland, more precisely in Berne. At this time they have, probably involuntarily, made small name changes. Miloš Bořkovec and Vobořil became Milos Borkovec and Voboril, because the Swiss Foreign Police official probably found neither a "š" nor a"ř" on his typewriter. Bořkovcová also became Borkovec, because derived women's surnames are only common in Slavic languages.

In Switzerland, they quickly found work in the flourishing economic situation of the time. Milos was employed as a civil engineer at the company Geotest AG and worked there until his retirement. He was heavily involved in the investigation of the subsurface of the western motorway bypass of Solothurn.

Since in the meantime wearing hats had completely gone out of fashion, Marcela had retrained herself and then found a job at the publishing house of Peter Lang in Berne. They spent their leisure time with travels that were denied to them in Czechoslovakia. They visited Austria, Italy, Spain, Greece, Egypt, America, but most frequently France. The gentle hills of Franche-Comté probably reminded them of the Bohemian landscape, which they have not been able to visit since 1968.

Only after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 could they travel back to their original homeland, which soon became the Czech Republic. The situation there had normalized and they had enjoyed meeting their old friends and relatives again. After more than half a century the three brothers Milos, Sasha, and Ivan met again. Here a photo of this event.

Marcela and Milos also built a small holiday cottage in Ostrov, where they spent every summer when they were old. However, they remained faithful to their new Swiss homeland. The cottage in Ostrov was sold and they both died in Bern, Milos in 2012 and Marcela in 2017.

When she was old, Marcela has written a short essay about her memories. An English translation is available through this link. A drawing by Milos, which is shown in the bottom right, dates from the same period. A list of the immediate ancestors can be found here.

Essay Ancestors Main page