IN MEMORIAM OF HELENKA LEISZTNER KROFTOVÁ
Text: Helena Leisztner Kroftová’s husband, Ronald Leisztner, Helena Leisztner Kroftová’s colleague and neighbour, David Bodeček, M. Zisso; Photo: Archive
It was during the weekend that we were saddened by the news – Helena is not with us anymore.
We lost a friend, an artist, a political person with a soul. Her family lost a loving wife and a proud mother.
I’ve known Helena – I simply can’t speak about her in the past tense – for a few years. A very talented and unique artist, with a lot of friends around her. Always with a big smile on her face, even when in pain from this damn disease.
(M. Zisso)
Ronald, Helena’s husband and my friend, wrote a few words:
Dear friends, acquaintances, and strangers,
This will be longer and more personal. I apologize in advance.
Many unanswered questions – I will slightly violate our principles, beloved Helenka, sorry.
I am not doing this for myself, or us, but for you. What happened, supposedly happens to one in three of us.
29 years ago, I felt a lump in you, I immediately rushed you to Mrs. Skovajsová. Unfortunately, the diagnosis was clear. The doctors gave us five years together.
Uncle Vladyka, the founder of Gamma Leksell at Homolka, took Helenka in.
Four times ‘Mrcha’ returned, and we always disappeared for the worst 3-6 months.
Helenka was amazing, strong, and optimistic. A phoenix.
Since October, everything has worsened, and on Friday night, at home in her sleep, ‘Mrcha’ won.
She always said it was the secret between the two of us. Often, when I was sad, she’d say ‘Horseshoe’ and pull me into a smile. I am revealing this only because each of you should believe in yourself – and you will often overcome all medical prognoses.
Thank you to everyone from the Prague General University Hospital, the Central Military Hospital, Homolka, and Motol for all their wonderful help in the fight, with one piece of advice: if you think it is necessary, immediately try to use the harshest treatment possible – again, I know it is often a difficult dilemma.
I would like, and I believe I have the right to, express a clear opinion: everyone fights according to their own decision. Whether you share it with everyone or keep everything to yourself, it is always the right decision, yours and unique.
A message for you, for the first and second ones: speak, ask, do not be shy, support.
Family: Helena, Ronald, Ronald Jr, and Lee
Farewell?
Helenka explicitly forbade me, she hated: any mourning ceremony, black, ‘we remember’, condolences, coffin, wreaths, heavy music. Us being here is enough. She always said, don’t you dare, I will come back and haunt you at night! We shared the same opinions on that.
A silent memorial meeting – an hour-long event with mass. Please, no black, dark, or grey clothes. On the contrary: white, blue, or colourful summer clothes, and only spring flowers for church and remembrance.
Helenka was always clear about it – company, smile, energy, elegance, passion, and Latino.
Everyone grieves differently – tradition and otherness – everything is right and a holy right of choice.
One morning, a year ago in the spring, my love whispered: I would like another wedding in the church. In this church. The priest is a friend, an exceptional person, he will arrange everything, what do you say?
Love, anytime with pleasure, a wonderful idea. But you have Lyme disease, you take strong antibiotics, you have many activities, ‘Mrcha’ is bothering us again, more strong drugs, treatment, twice an ambulance, twice an emergency admission, hospital, you are weaker, it will be too much for you. When everything improves a little, we will do it right away, we will invite friends, it will be beautiful.
Love, sorry, I will not keep my promise this time.
In conclusion, with the consent of my son Roland, I will add two short last excerpts from my beloved Helenka from our family chat.
“That’s completely normal, Bubisku, beware of all stress, because for me health is the foundation, full stop. Alberto Moravia: life is just a theatre. Rolinku, life has its ups and downs, you can see that for yourself. Let go of all the negativity and keep your positivity, I lasted this long because I always cared about you immensely. I had to raise you and you are a great guy and you always will be. Now take life as it comes and never regret anything, everything is fate, suddenly I feel like I will make it again, harder, but I will make it, I am Capricorn…”
Roland
Last picture of Helena and Ronald together
Ronald, Helena, and David Bodeček, one of the last pictures
David Bodeček, who worked with Helena in Prague 1 City Hall, wrote:
Helenka is gone.
I am writing down this sentence, and I still don’t believe it. I still feel like questioning it, as if it were just a failed April Fool’s joke. After all, it is April. I wish it were April Fool’s Day. I wish it were.
I started writing these lines at night. I heard the news of her passing at the theatre. At first, it was just information shared in a whisper, unconfirmed.
When I got home, I laid down in bed and started going through my phone.
I was looking for photos of Helenka. I kept stopping by them, returning to them.
I wanted to write to her. On Messenger. Send an SMS to her number.
I didn’t have the courage.
And so, I started writing these lines.
I told myself that if it wasn’t true, I would tell her that she would be here with us for a long time. That this text would never be created. That I would never publish it.
After all, they say that if we ‘bury’ a person with words during their lifetime, they will live for a very, very long time.
Too bad.
I am publishing it.
Helenka Leisztner Kroftová, born on January 8th, 1956, lived here with us, in our Stínadla, in Kozí ulice. Just a street away from me. So close that it seemed she would always be here. She was a part of everyday life that one takes for granted. And then suddenly she is not.
We last saw each other last Friday at the Prague 1 ball, and before that, last Wednesday, at Kozí plácek. At an April Fool’s rendezvous. How symbolic. How cruelly symbolic. I wish the news of her passing was just April Fool’s Day.
For me, Helenka was a personality with incredible charm. A distinctive, charming woman with a refined style. A fashion icon not only of Prague 1. But most importantly, a person.
An artist in the truest sense of the word. Painter, photographer, fashion designer. Her work carried motifs of Prague 1, Žofín, Hradčany… she worked with silk, with 3D effects, created paintings for gardens, for authors’ works with international reach. She was appreciated in the Czech Republic, but also abroad. She invited personalities, organized exhibitions, created a space for meetings.
But above all, Helenka lived by aesthetics.
And she wanted more.
She wanted a lot. And she tried.
She used to tell me: “I would like to connect aesthetics with politics. To give it a different dimension.”
She wanted bad human relationships to give way in politics. So that there would be more culture, more emotion, more humanity in it.
We have been united in this for a long time.
She told me that on the one hand I was ideal for politics. And on the other hand, she was amazed at me.
She said that I was different. And she rejected my own label that I had been ‘weird’ all my life.
She would rather say that I was different.
And she knew how to accept this difference, and perhaps that is why she was a natural part of moments that were not obvious to others.
I remember August 2023, when she came to our City Hall for the ceremonial raising of the rainbow flag.
It was not the first time. And it was not the last.
But that day was different. More solemn. Stronger. Exceptional.
She was there with us. Naturally. Without ostentation. And yet firmly.
Just like in her attitudes towards people.
And she relied on details.
Among other things, on shoes.
How many times have I found myself admiring her shoes. And she easily explained how important they were. Not only practically, but aesthetically. That the whole thing is based on them.
And now I will allow myself one memory that I believe she would accept with a smile.
Helenka Leisztner Kroftová… let’s face it, not all of us could spell her last name correctly.
And she absolutely hated it.
There were a lot of us.
But maybe that’s why it had a simple solution between us.
All we had to do was say: Helenka. And everyone knew.
To avoid just being pathetic, I often met her on the 7th floor of our Town Hall. She stood in the area behind the elevators, in the illuminated part of the corridor, in front of the ‘alley of fame’, where the Honorary Citizens of Prague 1 and the holders of the Prague 1 Awards hang.
That place belonged to her.
First, as an ordinary member of the Prague 1 Municipal Council Commission for the awarding of Honorary Citizenships. Subsequently, in the last four years, as its chairwoman for the Our Prague 1 group, and consequently the ANO 2011 movement.
She gave that role a personal dimension. Sense. Taste. Dignity.
“Helenka, I kind of love your madness,” I used to tell her.
“Maybe more precisely, your chaos.”
“That strange, human, disarming chaos in organizational matters, which was in direct contrast to your precision in aesthetics and art.”
She laughed.
She looked over her glasses, with that unmistakable look of hers. With a smile accentuated by lipstick, always perfectly matched to what she was wearing.
Sometimes she said: “Advise me of what to do.”
And yet she had a gift that I don’t have.
She was able to suppress her emotions. When she wasn’t sure, she wasn’t ‘steady on her feet.’ She would wave it off lightly. With grace. And then, almost imperceptibly, she would praise the other person. So that you forgot that she was the one solving something.
I can’t do that. And I loved that about her.
I was one of those who looked forward to every meeting with her.
And then there is her inner circle.
Her husband, Roland Leisztner. A charismatic man, kind, gallant, always present by her side.
Not just a husband. A true partner and friend.
And their son. Quiet, less noticeable, but firmly present in her life.
I saw him the day before yesterday, on Friday morning. He was running through Kozí plácek. He was moving, with a strange expression.
I wanted to call him.
I didn’t.
Today I am reliving that moment.
I have had a strange feeling over the last few days. As if a wave of departures has suddenly begun.
That’s exactly how I’ve felt in recent days, and unfortunately, even in recent weeks. And, amid all that, there is suddenly an empty place. A space where she used to be – Helenka.
Helenka…
we will not forget.
My sincere and great condolences to her two men, family, friends, colleagues, and all of us who will miss her so much.
RIP Helena Leisztner.
Helena’s art and her soul will stay with us forever.
Read more articles about Helena’s work:
HELENA LEISZTNER KROFT DIPTYCH FROM THE CYCLE OF FLOWERS 2018 – A CENTENNIAL STORY “CZECH LINDEN”
International Conference of WCI – WELCOME CLUB INTERNATIONAL