Otílie Jiříčková

* 1935

  • "We built with our own hands. We knew the people in the house. I gossiped with the neighbors from the upper floors, and they told me, this one died, this one steals, I had information. The neighbors are old and sick, and they moved out or died. There's a new tenant across the street, and he doesn't communicate with us. I would ask that the hearing public not be afraid to communicate with the deaf. We know that hearing people can't sign, but they can write what they want to say."

  • "When I first came to the institutional school, there were many children there. My mom said, 'I'm going away.' I told her to go away. I was playing with the kids. When my mom didn't come in the evening, I started crying a lot. I was scared. It was dark. I was used to my mother. I couldn't be without her. In fact, she left me there. The second or third day she came, I was very happy. I hugged her, and held her. I was implying that I wanted to go home with her. We went to Vejprnice. Then we went back to school. When we took the tram, I didn't want to go to school anymore. Mummy said: 'Don't worry, you'll sleep there for one, two, three, four, five days and then, you'll come home. I was so scared. Then I got used to it."

  • "Question: 'How does the child communicate with his parents when he can't hear?' Answer: 'We used basic easy signs that hearing people use.' Question: 'Can you show me some?' Answer: 'I don't remember everything - drink - food - hungry - sleep - headache - toothache.'"

  • Celé nahrávky
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    Plzeň, 29.06.2023

    (audio)
    délka: 01:06:57
    nahrávka pořízena v rámci projektu Příběhy regionu - PLZ REG ED
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Don‘t be afraid to communicate with us

Otílie Jiříčková in 2023
Otílie Jiříčková in 2023
zdroj: Pilsen studio

Otílie Jiříčková was born on 21 August 1935. Her family lived in Vejprnice near Pilsen. When she was one and a half years old, she lost her hearing during an illness. Her parents, mother Otílie and father Ludvík Kopřiva worked as clerks. When she was five years old, her parents placed her in an „institution for the deaf and mute“ in Plzeň na Borech, and she went home on weekends. At the institution, they taught the deaf to read from the lips, but the witness is much closer to sign language. She stayed at the institute until she was fifteen. Then, she trained as a seamstress at a regular apprenticeship, the only profession offered to deaf girls. In 1955, she married. Her husband Stanislav was also deaf, she went to school with him, he was a trained letterer. Their daughter Milena was born in 1957, and two years later, their son Stanislav was born. Both of them are hearing, and their grandparents helped with their upbringing. After her maternity leave, she started working at Styl in Plzeň and worked there until her retirement. She regularly attends the Association of the Deaf in Pilsen, uses the services of sign language interpreters, and meets deaf women at the Women‘s Club.