The Catholic Weekly 01/2012

Five nuns cared for Vaclav Havel until his last moments. In the week before Christmas we met up with one of them, Sr. VERITAS Holíková, who gives testimony to the ex-president’s death.

How is it that your order – Sisters of Charles Boromeo– were chosen to care for Vaclav Havel?

In July he had to decide about where to continue his rehabilitation and treatment of pneumonia and other health complications. He and his personal physician, Dr.Thomas Bouzek, agreed that he should go to his cottage on Hradecek. But he still needed constant medical supervision and care. Shortly before he was to leave for Hrádeček, he approached Archbishop Duka to ask for the help of the boromeo sisters, whom he knew from the hospital under the Petrin hill – that is, he knew it from hearsay. He was there several times as a prisoner-patient, because that hospital was used by the prisoners from Ruzine prison, but at that time the Sisters were not yet working there. Mrs. Havel then contacted our  Superior General.

Earlier, President Havel was under the care of Sr. Dominic, who is a doctor and was then Archbishop Dominik Duka’s assistant. Later on we were invited to help: Sister Evangelista, Angelika, Alena and me. In September Sr. Ldumila of the Congregation of Grey Sisters of the Third Order of St Francis came to join us.

How were you influenced or even enriched during this period when you worked so closely with Vaclav Havel?

Mr. Vaclav Havel was a practical philosopher, certainly not a dreamer or an idealist, as he was sometimes pictured in an effort to discredit some of the ideals he formulated, defended and stood by. As I got to know him at the end of his life, he really thought in a realistic and practical way. He was very interested in how ordinary people live, how much they have to pay for medications and things like that. Because of this I could see how even great ideals could also be manifest in daily life.

To what extent was Vaclav Havel in contact with other people at the end of his life? What do you remember now?

I was surprised to see that he was not trying to deny his difficult experiences. He was not afraid to face difficult things; he was ready to discuss them. Similarly he was not afraid to talk about death and the process of dying. He faced the difficult situation he was in and was not unwilling to discuss this difficult time of his life, not only with us but also with his doctor.