#eva dusil

Family • Photo Restoration • 64 • Dusil • 50th Anniversary of our Emigration

• Today commemorates the 50th anniversary of our family’s emigration from former Czechoslovakia. It would also have been Taci’s 77th birthday. On this day in 1969, over a year had passed when the Soviet Union and members of the Warsaw Pact illegal occupied of Czechoslovakia. Our departure would have been immediately after the invasion, but with my mother being eight months pregnant, my parents…

• Introduction by Eva Dusil • Editing by Gabriel Dusil • 2014 November

• My family didn’t share my fascination with animals. My parents didn’t understand how the odor of animals and farmland could fill me with delight. Whenever we traveled through the countryside I’d bath in the smell of freshly fertilized land. My mom found it funny that I liked the smell of manure. As I’d breathe in, my…

Family • Photo Restoration • 55 • Mamička • Inspiration

• Introduction by Eva Dusil • Editing by Gabriel Dusil • 2014 November

• My early inspiration to veterinary medicine was from a veterinary student named Karel Šestak. He was renting a room in our apartment, and was studying at our local Veterinary College. Thanks to him I knew that I wanted to be a veterinarian. I was ten years old at the time.  When I told him my aspirations, he smiled, as if…

Family • Photo Restoration • 49 • Dusil • Canada

• Introduction by Eva Dusil • Editing by Gabriel Dusil • 2014 November

• According to communist propaganda, only rich people could attend university in the West. They told us many lies, trying to convince us that Socialism was superior to Capitalism. Constant propaganda brainwashed citizens in believing that the West was an evil imperialistempire. History has told a different story. Either way,…

Family • Photo Restoration • 43 • Gabičko • Chapter III

Chapter III • 7,197 Days

• After graduating from university I treated myself by visited my friend Robert Fridrich in Prague. He had arrived two years earlier to teach English. By the time I visited in June of 1991 he was starting Mac Source, an Apple reseller business with two partners, Tony Hasek and Glen Emery. I witnessed how the market was developing and the opportunities to make a fresh…

Family • Photo Restoration • 42 • Dusil • Immigration

• Introduction by Eva Dusil • Editing by Gabriel Dusil • 2014 October

• Our family struggled financially throughout my youth. My father was paid very poorly as an appraiser of antique books – somewhere around 800 Czechoslovakian korunas per month (equivalent to 33 US$ at today’s exchange rate). My mother earned around 1200 korunas (49 US$) per month as a clerk. As a child I didn’t feel…

Family • Photo Restoration • 36 • Dusil Family • Pets

• As huge as he was, Cezar was a gentle giant. He never bit any of us. Cezar even made futile attempts to play with our cats but was abundantly clear that – when push came to shove – he was terrified of claws. I loved our first cat Puci, but I was a bad guardian. As a toddler I wasn’t versed in the etiquette of looking after animals. To keep my toddler brain amused I tortured him endlessly. In…

Family • Photo Restoration • 35 • Taci & Googičko

• Introduction by Alica Dusil • Editing by Gabriel Dusil • 2015 April

• I am proud of what Taci accomplished. But I don’t have memories of Taci and don’t feel thankful for what he has done for me, other than give me life. To be clear – I’m not angry. I just believe that in the thirty three years I spent building my life, shaping my personality has nothing to do with him. Maybe it’s a clique that…