Eugenie Ledecká Janečková, born Egertová

Eugenie Ledecká – the mysterious lady from the painting (in Café & Restaurant Continental)

I was born on May 8, 1912, as Eugenie Egertová. My father ran a train station restaurant in Česká Třebová, while my mother was a houswife and prepared me for my future role as a wife and mother.  As a girl, I dreamed of traveling, I wanted to visit America.

An Arranged Marriage

At the age of nineteen, I married the owner of this hotel, Emanuel Ledecký, thus fulfilling my parents' wishes. I brought a dowry to the hotel, which Emanuel had purchased for three million crowns, allowing us to modernize it. The hotel was built in 1895 and reflected the magnificence of the nineteenth  century. We managed to renovate the rooms, equiped them with modern furniture, open a Café in the First Republic style and a renowned restaurant where Pilsen's high society and famous guests used to gather. One day, Marlene Dietrich even stayed with us.

I wore beautiful dresses and was surrounded by luxury, but I didn't have the most important thing: love. I didn't love Emanuel, he was nine years older than me and seemed too serious to me. We had two children together: Evženka and Emánek. Life went on, and I tried to chase away my unhappy marriage blues by reading and collecting art. Sometimes Emanuel and I would go on a trip to the woods, he loved hunting.

The Fatal Bombing

The clouds began to gather over Europe. I remember how cold it was on March 15, 1939, when German soldiers arrived in Pilsen, occupied the nearby 35th Infantry Regiment barracks, and the very next day instituted right-hand traffic. Members of the Gestapo began coming to the hotel for lunch. It wasn't pleasant at all. 

December 20, 1944, was fatal for my entire family. Emánek didn't want to go to school that day, but fortunately he went anyway. I went with Evženka to visit my sick mother in the hospital, she was already in agony. Before noon, the sirens began to wail, and bombers roared overhead. One bomb flew through the hotel skylight, passed through my apartment, number 211, landed in the basement, and exploded. There were eighty, maybe a hundred people in that basement - guests, passersby… Our hotel's bomb shelter was supposed to be the safest in the city center. But it wasn't. Most of the people died, including my father Arnošt and my husband Emanuel. My children and I survived because we weren't there. My mother Marie passed away the next day. I was thirty-two, I was widowed, and I was left alone with two small children and a bombed-out hotel. I rushed into the renovation, I wanted to get the hotel up and reopen as quickly as possible.

The Liberation in May 

When American soldiers- our liberators - arrived in Pilsen on May 6,1945, they set up a temporary headquarters in the hotel, and General John Hinds came to inform me about it. I wasn't happy about it, we had just laid down new carpet. Hinds was a good looking soldier, who had traveled all across Europe from Normandy to Pilsen, weathered by sun and wind, he was a true gentleman. He invited me for a drink - I went, still wearing my black dress. Hinds fell in love with me, and I with him. Then he was called back to the USA. He promised me he would divorce his wife and come back for me. I didn't believe him. 

The Second Suitor

It was summer when the doors of the hotel Café flew open, I was sitting at a table, drinking coffee and wondering what to do. John had actually gotten divorced in America and sent me, through a mutual acquaintance, a ring and a letter proposing marriage. Should I leave for the unknown with my two children? I'm hesitating. 

A tall man rushed into the Café like the wind, looking for a can of gasoline. Then he saw me at the table and came over to me. "I'm Jiří Janeček, you must be the widow from whom I carried a letter and a ring across the ocean. I don't blame Hinds at all." He sat down next to me and spent the whole hour telling me the story of the ring - how Hinds had first approached Jan Masaryk, who didn't have a time, so they gave the ring to him, Jíří, and he brought it to Czechoslovakia, then how Jiří didn't have a time to take it to Pilsen… "If I'd known how beautiful you are, I would have thrown this ring away and brought you another one, from me. Marry me, Eugenie."

It was crazy. I know. But I'd lived through six years of war and I had a thirst for life, for joy, for love, for music. I knew I had to make a decision and that I had to do something, because there were rumoured that the communists were taking over the government and that it wouldn't be pleasant. Besides, I'd always longed to travel to the USA. 

The Journey to America

After were knowing him for three weeks, I married Jiří. We were married on September 27, 1945. I packed up the children and myself, handed the hotel over to the manager, and with Jiří I left for America. We lived in New York and traveled a lot because Jiří was a diplomat, he worked for the United Nations. We had diplomatic passports and returned to Czechoslovakia several times, but I never made it to Plzeň - the memories were still too raw. 

I gave birth to three more children with Jiří and lived a fairly contented life. Jiří died in 1986, three years later, the Velvet Revolution occurred, and the Hotel Continental was returned to us as a part of the restitution process. I moved to Pilsen with my two sons - Emánek (Ledecký) and George (Janeček). We reopened the hotel, but it never achieved the same fame it had during the First Republic. I never got used to Pilsen again, after seeing the big world, it seemed too small to me, and besides, everyone knew me as 'that lady from the hotel'.

The Story Behind the Painting

I eventually returned to the USA and passed away on December 25,1998. Do not look for my grave. Jiří and I had only one wish: to have our ashes scattered in a beloved corner of nature in Czechoslovakia, exactly where, I won't tell you.

By the way, the painting you're looking at, my son George had it painted after I passed away. It was based on a photograph I took shortly after I became a widow. 

But enough chatting. Come sit down, have some coffee, and try our famous Sacher cake. And if my story has interested you and you want to learn more, you can buy a novel inspired by my life at the hotel front desk - at this moment only in Czech language.

 (written by Jana Poncarová, translated by Adéla Daňková)