Vera Dundrova Blazka

January 25, 1926 - August 11, 2017

Vera A. Blazka, neé Dundrova, died peacefully on August 11, 2017 at the Eddy Village Green, Cohoes, NY. She was born on January 25, 1926 in Česká Kamenice, Bohemia in Czechoslovakia. Vera was predeceased by her husband by Oldrich J. Blazka on Dec. 31, 1986. She is survived by her three children, Octavia Taylor and her husband Stephen, of New Braintree, MA; Mark Blazka and his wife Deena, of Bethlehem, PA; and Daphne Crossley and her husband Andrew, of Watertown, NY; five grandchildren, Jenny Taylor, of Brooklyn, NY, Amanda and Eric Blazka, and Maclean and Merritt Crossley, and two great-grandchildren Isaac and Malik Taylor-Ford. Vera grew up in northern Bohemia near the German border and attended schools in Deçin. Her teen years coincided with WWII, during which time her house was occupied by the Nazis. As a consequence her family suffered much privation and terror. She married Oldrich J. Blazka on March 28, 1948 just after the Communist takeover of Eastern Europe. Their honeymoon consisted of walking out of Czechoslovakia through forests and fields at night from sanctuary home to sanctuary home until they reached Dresden, Germany about 38 miles away. From there they made their way by train to the French Sector in Germany where they were transferred to a refugee camp in France. While in the refugee camp she developed tuberculosis and as a consequence was unable to emigrate to the US with her husband in 1951. Instead she was nursed back to health in a TB sanatorium located in Aurillac in central France. Vera’s life was filled with humanity and kindness. Even while faced with uncertainty about her and her husband’s future in a French refugee camp in the early 1950s, she used her multi-lingual skills to help Father Dominique Pire translate letters from Czech and German refugees into French. She continued to volunteer with Father Pire even while she recuperated from TB until she emigrated to New York City in December 1957. Father Pire was the recipient of the 1958 Nobel Peace Prize for his path breaking humanitarian work among displaced persons after WWII. After being reunited with her husband Oldrich she worked as a secretary/bookkeeper for his firms, Falcon-Roxy Tire and Lee Tires. Upon retiring in 1976, Vera and Oldrich moved to Lake Placid, N.Y. where they resided until the late 1980s. While living in Lake Placid, she volunteered at the Uihlein Mercy Center nursing home, assisting residents by reading books/letters and writing letters for them. In addition to volunteer work, she was a master knitter and seamstress and enjoyed playing contract bridge well into her mid-eighties. Vera was a philanthropist, generously giving to many charities. If desired, memorial donations in Vera’s name may be made to her local favorites: Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, 965 Albany-Shaker Rd, Latham, NY 12110 www.regionalfoodbank.net; Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood, 855 Central Avenue, Albany, NY 12206 www.uhpp.org; and WMHT Educational Telecommunications, Inc., PO Box 1701, Albany, NY 12201 www.wmht.org. Marra Funeral Home in Cohoes is handling arrangements.