My grandmother, Ellen Ehlert, immigrated to the United States when she was 11 years old in 1943 from what is now considered the Czech Republic. She came with her mother, father, brother, and two sisters and settled in a tiny town in Houston, Texas, called Lovelady. Although her parents never learned English, she picked up English quickly and was fluent in Czech and English by the time she was 15. She continued to speak Czech until her parents passed away when she was in her 50s.

My grandmother was a phenomenal cook. She would make a traditional pastry called a kolache. They are a small sweet bread with different fillings like fruits, poppy seeds, and sausages. Making these pastries was a grueling process; it usually took around six to eight hours because you had to wait for the sweet bread to rise and fall multiple times. I had tried to learn this recipe from her a couple of times, but she never knew the measurements because she only measured by eye. She was known for baking hundreds of kolaches in the weeks before Christmas. She would package different flavored kolaches in individual boxes for each member of the family, and there are a lot of us. 

– Katie Arnold

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant