“It is with pain in my heart that I announce to you that God has called to himself a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, colleague and friend, Martina Vondrovánée Kafkova. She died at home in the presence of those closest to her and in her sleep after a brave and long battle with a serious illness on August 21 before midnight. She turned 57 this July. She was born on the anniversary of the conquest of the Bastille, signed Charter 77 at twenty, left us on the anniversary of the occupation. It’s fast, it’s not fair. But life is like that sometimes,” the politician informed on Facebook.
In the last few days, Vondra has not appeared much in the public space. According to his words, in her presence, he was fully aware of how great a woman he had by his side for the past 37 years. “She didn’t play for anything, she was modest, but all the more she helped many people – as a teacher, carer or therapist. Mayda, thanks! Rest in peace,” he said
The last farewell to the deceased will take place during the funeral mass on Saturday, August 31 at 2 p.m. in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Litoměřice. “In recent years, at funerals, I’ve been saying something like, ‘It’s already felling in our forest.’ Now came the jam in the most sacred and closest garden,” wrote Vondra.
Victory over the demon of alcohol
The couple had three children together, Vojtěch, Anna and Maria. Martina Vondrová was originally a cantor, in recent years she worked as a therapist at Hospice St. Štěpán in Litoměřice. Vondrová struggled with alcoholism for a long time, which she spoke about in 2014 on the Czech TV program Pološero. “I needed my drinking days. It affected all three of my children in their early school years. Because at that moment I was here for the alcohol, but I wasn’t here for the kids. They were certainly well fed, clean, had a lot of rings, but my heart was elsewhere,” she confided at the time with tears in her eyes.
Self-loathing drove her to the point of attempting suicide at one point. “In order to be able to do it, I worked my way up to less than five per thousand. I vaguely remember that situation. I was saved then by the attentiveness of a lady passing by, who was enlightened enough to start talking to me and finally got me into an ambulance“, she recalled.
The mentioned situation forced her to seek help and start treatment. Her family became a great support in a difficult situation. After successful treatment, she gave up drinking for good. “I don’t talk about it lightly. It’s an item I can’t return and I’m terribly sorry. That drink is terribly selfish. To this day, I simply don’t know how extensive the damage I actually caused and whether it is possible to somehow mitigate it,” she concluded at the time.
