Heda Ambrova on a walk with her sister and grandfather

This picture was taken in around 1925 in Piestany. It shows us on a walk with our grandfather, whom we loved. On the left is my sister, Magda Erdelyiova, then our grandfather, Benedikt Duschnitz, I (Heda Ambrova), and a pharmacy student, Miss Heger, who worked in our father’s pharmacy.

My maternal grandfather was born in Dolny Kubin in 1856. My grandmother's name was Cecilia Duschnitz, née Meisl. She was born in Podbiel, or Namestovo, in 1865. My grandmother was 17 when she got married. She was a dark-haired, slim lady. My mother’s parents initially lived in Slanica. There my grandfather owned a button factory and a distillery. Otherwise he was a builder. During the time of World War I he designed buildings. At the age of 20, my mother, Ruzena Erdelyiova, née Duschnitz, took over the distillery. Because my grandparents had ten children, they moved from the village to the town of Ruzomberok. Once my grandfather loaded us, his grandchildren, into a taxi and took us on a tour of Slanice and the house where they’d lived. There were still eyelets sticking out of the doorframe where a swing had once hung. They’d also had a horizontal bar and a set of rings there.

Photos from this interviewee