Christmas, December 24, 1967
After we had eaten Christmas dinner, it was time for dessert. Mom brought out an ice cream cake she had bought at the store. The cake was pre-cut, and in one slice, there was an almond. It is a Danish tradition on Christmas Eve that whoever gets the almond gets a prize.
Mom handed me a slice of cake, then gave one to Sander. Sander immediately yelled out, “Anne-Mette’s piece is bigger than mine!” Since I didn’t want any fighting, I hurried and switched them.
Sander quickly calmed down, and we started to eat. As luck would have it, I got the almond. I said with excitement, “Look, I got the almond!” Sander at once started up again. He yelled, “You took my piece of cake, now give me back my almond!” Mom got out the almond prize. It was a bag of candy. Mom told us to share it. I didn’t mind. Sander, however, was pretty upset about having to share the almond gift. I thought it served him right that he had to share the candy with me.
I drew this picture in January 1968. Mom is playing with her new boy. I am in the baby carriage. I wanted to play with Mom, but she was too busy, so I played by myself.
In this picture, Mom ran off to get married. I’m in the background in the baby carriage. The cloud is raining down on me because Mom forgot about me.
I drew this picture because I felt Heavenly Father was aware of me. I am the child in the baby carriage. The cloud is raining over me, for heaven is sad because of the way my life is. There is a butterfly at my feet. It was sent to comfort me and to let me know that I am not left totally alone.
Food Poisoning 1968
It was Friday, and once again, Mom said I couldn’t go see Dad. Sander asked Dad if he could bring a friend named Lars. Dad figured since I didn’t want to come, it was fine if Lars came instead.
I was so envious of Lars. I knew he would have a lot of fun since Dad always had the whole weekend planned.
The next day, Saturday, Mom decided to fix something for us to eat. She looked in the fridge and found some old leftover potatoes mixed with meat. Mom heated it up, and we ate it. After lunch, Mom told me to go play outside while she took a nap.
While running outside, I started to feel sick. I went in and saw Mom was asleep. I was afraid to wake her up. I didn’t want to make her mad. However, I felt I had no choice but to do so. I was so sick! I told Mom I felt like I had to throw up. She told me to go stand over the toilet and then stick my finger down my throat. She promptly went back to sleep again.
I went to stand over the toilet, but I didn’t get a chance to stick my finger down my throat because when I leaned over, I automatically threw up. I felt so much better and went outside to play again. Later, when I came back in, I saw Mom leaning over the toilet trying to throw up, but she wasn’t able to get rid of the food she had eaten.
She was sick the whole weekend. I took care of both of us. I got her some water whenever she asked for it. Watching Mom made me grateful I had thrown up before the food had a chance to get into my system.
When Sander and Lars came back, they told me all about the fun they had while they were with Dad. Lars said he wanted to come every weekend. There were weekends when Mom had plans, so she let me go with Sander.
Lars still wanted to come, so there were weekends when all three of us went to Dad’s. I didn’t mind Lars coming. I was just grateful I could come along. However, when I came, Dad hardly talked to me.
I didn’t know it was because Mom had told him I didn’t want to come. I thought he didn’t like me because my hair was cut off, and I wasn’t as smart as Sander. I admired Sander even more and hoped one day I would grow up and be just like him.
Broken Family
Even though Dad hardly talked to me, I still counted down to Friday. This weekend, Mom told me Dad didn’t want me to come, so she had me stay home with her again.
I wondered what I had done wrong and why Dad didn’t want me to come. If I got to go next Friday, I would do all I could to be good so that Dad would want me to come again.
On Sunday, we went to church. The teacher gave a lesson on families. She told us the Father in the home was in charge of the family.
After the lesson, the teacher asked us to draw a picture of what we enjoyed doing with our family. I told the teacher that my parents were divorced. Therefore, I couldn’t draw us doing something together. The teacher told me to draw something I wished we could do together.
Everyone in the class had both a Father and a Mother. This was the first time I was aware that I lived in a broken home.
I drew this picture of my family having a picnic. It was painful for me to draw because I had to pretend my family was whole and we were doing something together.
Spring 1968
Mom had spring vacation. As usual, Sander was allowed to spend the week with Dad, and I was not allowed to come along.
Instead, I went with Grandma Helfred to visit her sister, Ada, who lived in Germany. My cousin Peter came too. Peter was about four years younger than me, but we still had fun playing with the chickens and rabbits that Ada had in her backyard.
Summer 1968
Mom had summer vacation. She was going to Canada to visit Bent, and from there she would take a bus to visit family she had in Salt Lake City.
Mom arranged for her uncle, Frederick, and his wife, Tove, to watch us. Tove and her husband had kids who were almost adults. Their family had planned to ride their bikes and tour Denmark this summer. Tove told Mom that if she were to watch us, I would need to learn how to ride a bike.
Mom bought me a used yellow bike. It didn’t take me long to learn how to ride it.
At the end of June, Mom was off to Canada. Tove came to pick us up. We took a train to where she lived in Vanløse.
Sander and I didn’t know her or her family very well since we didn’t see them often. They treated us kindly. Tove’s teenage boys made it clear to Sander right from the start that he was not to hit me. Tove’s teenage kids were fun to be with, so it didn’t take long for Sander and me to feel at ease.
The very next day, we rode our bikes with Tove and some of her children.
During the day, we would ride bikes and see parts of Denmark I had never seen before.
We ride our bikes up to 40 kilometers (25.8 miles) a day and only stop to eat. When it got late, we slept in a tent in an open field.
It was hard on me, but I didn’t want anyone to think I was any trouble, so I did my best to keep up. Tove’s daughter, Bente, would stay in the back to make sure I didn’t get too far behind.
One day, we stopped by the ocean. We relaxed and played in the water with a beach ball.
July 6, 1968
After riding our bikes all day, we stopped at a farm and asked the farmer if we could set up a tent on his property and spend the night. The farmer said we could sleep in the loft in his barn, where he kept the hay.
July 7, 1968
In the morning, the farmer gave us milk right from one of his cows. He showed me how to milk a cow and had me try it. It was not as easy as it looked! I had no idea this was where milk came from. The milk he gave us was still warm.
I turned seven today. I thought it was fun that I was born on the seventh day of the seventh month, and if you add the year I was born, ’61, you also get seven. I felt special turning seven.
I proudly told the farmer that it was my 7th birthday. He gave me a cute stuffed animal that he had on hand. After we had eaten breakfast, we packed up and went on the road again.
Before Mom left for her vacation, I had told her I wanted a teddy bear for my birthday.
While we were on the road, Tove and her family stopped and sang “Happy Birthday to me.” Then Tove pulled out a teddy bear Mom had bought for me. It was white and the ugliest bear I had ever seen!
Even though it wasn’t what I expected, I was happy to receive it because it was from Mom.
However, I couldn’t understand why she had picked this white, ugly, stiff bear, especially since there were so many cute, soft, brown bears to choose from at the toy store.
Tove gave me a coloring book with crayons. I didn’t have time to color in it because we were on the road. Tove and her family had been so friendly to me, but inside I felt sad because I secretly hoped I would spend my seventh birthday with Mom. I had dreamed that she would make me a birthday cake, just like she had done for Sander when it was his birthday. When evening came, we slept in tents alongside the road.
July 8, 1968
This morning, when we woke up and got ready to pack, I found I had left my coloring book out on the grass. It was ruined because it had rained overnight. I felt terrible!
Today, we covered 33 kilometers (20.5 miles) in under three hours. It was hard for me to keep up, so I was allowed to stop and rest twice along the way. I was glad when we stopped to get something to eat. I could finally get some rest without feeling guilty.
July 1-28, 1968
We got to see quite a bit of Denmark this summer. There were times we took the train so that we could see even more of it. When we arrived in Copenhagen, it was time for Tove to return to work the following day.
July 29, 1968
Tove took Sander and me with her to work. She cleaned houses for elderly people. Tove bought Sander a toy car and me some paper dolls to help keep us busy while she was cleaning.
July 30, 1968
This morning, Tove told us we had to play at the nearby playground. She told us she would get us when she was done with work.
While Sander and I were at the playground, there was a boy who struggled to push open a big steel gate. Sander and I stood next to him. The boy then accidentally pushed the gate right onto my big toe.
There weren’t any adults around. The kids at the playground did their best to push the gate off my foot. The gate was heavy! When they were finally able to push the gate off, it had crushed my toenail into pieces.
Sander sat down beside me and tried to comfort me while we waited for Tove to come back.
When Tove was finally done, she came to get us. When she saw what had happened to me, she took me to the pharmacy. There she bought some alcohol, tweezers, and Band-Aids.
Then we sat on the curb, and she cleaned my toe off with the alcohol. Then she picked out the broken pieces of toenail with the tweezers. Boy, was I glad when she was finally done and could put the Band-Aid on.
After this incident, Tove was afraid to leave us by ourselves. So she brought us with her. Even though she had bought us some toys, it was boring to go with her. After all, there was only so much Sander and I could do with his toy car and my paper dolls. The days seemed to drag on forever!
Tove has been watching us for almost two months now. It is obvious she was tired of us.
Tuesday, August 6, 1968
This evening, Tove told us to sit still and eat our dinner without talking or laughing.
Tove’s husband, Frederick, had dentures. His dentures were too big for his mouth, and they made a funny clicking sound when he ate. We tried not to laugh because we both knew Tove was tired of us.
We did all we could to be good. Just when I thought everything was going so well, Frederick’s dentures made a clicking sound. So Sander and I glanced over at each other. It made us break into laughter. The food we had in our mouths went everywhere!
Tove dismissed us from the table and told us to go to bed. We hadn’t finished our dinner. It seemed like forever before we were able to fall asleep, and even longer before it was time for breakfast.
Wednesday, August 7, 1968
In the morning, Tove told us she was going to bring us back to Mom’s place. She had called Grandma, and she was going to meet us there.
Sander and I were excited to be back home. When we got there, Mom had not yet returned. Only Grandma Helfred and Grandma’s sister, Ada, were there, along with Ada’s daughter Edith and her husband. They were visiting from Germany.
It was nice to have them visit with us. I wished I could speak German to Edith and her husband, since they didn’t understand Danish. Edith taught me to say a few words in German. I had a lot of fun trying to speak it.
Saturday, August 10, 1968
When Mom came home, she opened her suitcase and handed us the presents she had bought while she was away.
We were anxious to hear all about her trip. Mom told us she first flew to Canada and stayed with Bent for a while. She then took a bus to Utah and visited with family that we had there. I thought it would be fun to go there someday and see this part of the family Mom was telling us about. Mom told us that after visiting family, she took the bus back to Canada and spent the rest of her time with Bent.
Mom gave Grandma a copper Temple. Grandma seemed thrilled with it!
When I was alone with Grandma, I held the Temple in my hands. I wondered why Grandma was so happy about her gift.
I asked Grandma to tell me about it. Grandma put me on her lap and told me it was called the Salt Lake Temple. It was a place where people got married and were sealed together forever.
Grandma then told me she had made many mistakes in her life and didn’t want me to make the same ones. She said it was important for me to get baptized when I turned eight and live up to the promises I would make at my baptism. Then, when I grew up, I was to find a Mormon who could take me to the Temple and get married.
I promised myself that when I grew up, I would go to America and get married in this special place. I would have my own family. My children would have a dad, and I would no longer be broken!
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