Amália Mikušová survived a lonely voyage to America, Nazi bombs, Soviet occupation, and 13 years apart from her father before finding peace on a Connecticut farm.
Agnes Zaicek Zabik grew up on her family's farm in a community settled by Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian immigrants. She graduated from the University of Connecticut and worked for 30 years as a clinical laboratory scientist. Her Slovak heritage remains an important part of her life, as it does for her family — her husband, Joseph, a retired data analyst, and their son, Matthew, an environmental conservationist. Agnes is also a lifelong active member of the Czechoslovak Society of America.
Agnes’s story is part of a Global Slovakia Project- Slovak Settlers, authored by Zuzana Palovic and Gabriela Bereghazyova. The book can be bought here.
Amália Mikušová was born on October 13, 1922, in Pernek, western Slovakia. At the time, it was a part of Czechoslovakia. When Amália was six years old, her father, Michal Mikuš, knowing he would not inherit the family farm, decided to “see what America was like.”
He was sponsored by Matej (Mathew) Zajíček, the man who would later become Amália’s father-in-law. After living in the New York area for some time, Mathew had moved to Ashford, Connecticut, where he had purchased a farm. Mathew still had relatives living in Pernek, and the Zaicek and Mikuš families remained close.
