Between memories and identity : How does one tell one's own story?

The number of those who lost their lives in Czechoslovakia during the Communist regime (1948-1989) is estimated at between six and ten thousand. Those whose lives were severely damaged in different ways are numberless. The present article will concentrate on one of the latter, a person subject to persecution in the so-called "normalization" period (after 1968). When it all started for her, she was fifteen years old and finishing elementary school. This article will trace the ways in which she is now attempting to put together a coherent story of what happened to her. As she moves between her memories, her feelings, and her present condition, affected beyond recovery, she realizes that the task is not an easy one. This article will use authentic, unedited material from that person's experiences, gathered, with her permission, through a number of conversations with the present author.