Tomb of Ödön Balyo, the flag savior of Rimaszécs (Balogvölgy)

In November 1944, Russian soldiers took two ornate flags from the St. László Church as war booty. One was the flag of the Mezőkövesd Kath. Egyh. Choir 1908, the other was the flag of the Catholic Reading Circle. ; During World War II, Ödön Balyo, a resident of Rimaszéc, served on the railway in Slávikovó, i.e. the neighboring Orávka, its Hungarian name is Kacagópuszt, where the soldiers were stationed. According to the widow of Gézán Balyo, Aunt Ica, at the beginning of 1945, her father-in-law came into contact with the Russian soldiers on whom she saw the two beautiful flags. ; Ödön Balyo, a resident of Rimaszéc, bought the flags from the retreating soldiers for 200 Czechoslovak crowns and four hens and carefully preserved them for nearly 30 years after the war. ; In times of strife and famine, he did not regret sacrificing his own property for them. During the war, they were hidden in the attic so that they would not be found. Then, after the war, he kept them secretly, tucked away in a bed, and guarded them with fear for nearly thirty years. Here they waited for the moment when they could set off again, towards their homeland. ; He told his friends about the story nearly thirty years later. During a pork-steak dinner, the hidden flags were discussed, and the idea that it would be good to return them to their original owners came up. Géza Gál and Magda Hajdú were good friends with Uncle Ödi's family, and taking a great risk, they took them back to Mezőkövesd in September 1974 as part of a group trip. They sent it to the Saint László Church with the help of Károly Zádory, the then director of the Mezőkövesd city library with ties to Rimaszéc, and then to József “Énekes” Pető, who donated it to the Agricultural Machinery Museum in 1980. ; This story came to light on August 10, 2015, when Géza Gál’s son, Ferenc Gál and his family visited the Hajdu Ráfis János Agricultural Machinery Museum, where the flags are kept. ; Ferenc Gál, vice president of the Rimaszéc Civic Association and a member of the local Reformed congregation, mentioned several times in the community that they would like to place a special, unique Hungarian-Matyó flag in the recently renovated Rimaszéc Reformed Church and shared this with Zoltán Kádár, the museum director, during the Kövesd visit. In the same month, Zoltán Kádár raised the issue at the board meeting of the Agricultural Machinery Museum Foundation for Public Benefit, and also asked Mátyás Kiss, a folk woodcarver and industrial artist, the president of MAME, to take on the cause of donating the flag. The costs of the flag were financed by the Mezőkövesd city government, MAME and private individuals. ; On May 28, 2016, at 9 a.m., a festive ecumenical service took place in the Reformed Church of Rimaszéc, where the new Hungarian flag donated by the Catholic people of Mezőkövesd was inaugurated, which the people of Mezőkövesd made as a sign of their gratitude in exchange for the old one. ; In 2016, the inaugurated flag was taken around the village in a horse-drawn carriage, and tribute was paid at the graves of the Balyo and Gál families in the cemetery.