IT WAS one of Aintree’s darkest days and ended with a Monday Grand National being run for the first time in history. And a re-run of the 1997 IRA bomb scare and the evacuation that followed is a nightmare scenario. But shortly after that event an overseas friendship was forged that has seen a Merseyside family re-united with evacuees they have welcomed in each year since. This year’s John Smith’s Grand National meeting witnessed another of the yearly reunions between Teresa Craven and her Czech friends. Teresa, who lives opposite the course on Ormskirk Road, opened her doors to evacuees that day. One group of about 25 Czechs walked past the house and huddled under the nearby railway bridge. The coach that was due to take them back to their hotel in Wirral was impounded, they were stranded and only one of them spoke English. Teresa’s son, Steve, approached them and asked if they wanted to come inside. Though they hesitated at first, the Czechs were soon warming up and enjoying tea and sandwiches. Steve rallied his friends who helped drive them back to the Mersey tunnel entrance where hotel staff were waiting. Josef Myska, 65, a retired engineer, has kept in touch with Teresa through his English-speaking daughter, Marketa, ever since. Speaking through an interpreter, he told the Daily Post: “It’s not the main reason I come to Aintree, not to visit Mrs Chadwick, but to come here is a real bonus. We were outside until about six in the evening when it started to rain. “Mrs Chadwick came and told me to come in so we weren’t cold and had some food and warmth.” Teresa and her family have been invited to spend time in either the Czech capital Prague, where Marketa lives, or with Josef and his wife, also called Marketa, in Pardubice. | 
