Arnold and Eva Kostkovi, U Opavice 4, August 8, 2018
“Already at six, six thirty, I sat Lukáš on his tricycle, put Roman in the stroller and off I went working in the boiler room . . . I worked, really, like a dog.”
Eva and Arnold Kostka moved to U Opavice in 1979 – originally into a two-room flat at U Opavice 2. In 1982 they passed that apartment on to Eva’s mother, Mrs. Frajzová, as they themselves moved to a larger, three-room flat at U Opavice 4, where they still live today. Arnold was raised in a village and used to dream of building a family house for himself and his wife there. Everything was ready for the construction but Eva, who was born in Opava, did not find the prospect of a village life particularly appealing and Arnold eventually gave up. Arnold was originally assigned the U Opavice flat through his job as the apartment buildings boiler operator; he and later his wife operated the boiler room that heats the U Opavice 2-4 apartments. In the interview they both reminisce about the hard and generally unrewarding work at the boiler room– at the time the boiler still used coal and it wasn’t automated. After several years at this job, Arnold found work in a bakery and eventually as a bus driver, and Eva left to work as a cook in Opava’s psychiatric hospital. They raised two sons at U Opavice. Eva and Arnold enjoy living here and like to reminisce about lazy summers spent on the banks of the Opava river, often accompanied by their neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Baránek.
