Thursday, December 23, 1971
It was now almost Christmas Eve and still we didn’t have a Christmas tree. Sander and I asked Bent if we could go buy a tree. Bent told us that there was a parking lot about 3 blocks from our house where a man was selling tress. He told us that the man was no longer selling the trees and to go see if there were any left.
Sander and I ran to the parking lot as fast as we could. Bent was right the man was no longer selling trees and there were a couple of scrawny looking trees left that the man had not been able to sell. Sander and I looked at the tress. They were both pretty sad-looking but we didn’t care. We picked out the better looking one of the two and dragged it home. Sander and I were so excited to finally have a tree. That was how we ended up getting a tree every year.
When we got home we didn’t have any decorations to put on it. Grandma helped Sander and I make a few homemade ones out of whatever we could find. As we were decorating the tree, I started to think about my cousin, Linda, and her family in Denmark. We had always spent Christmas with them. I wondered if any of my cousins in Denmark knew what had happened to us. I also thought about my dad. I was wondering what his tree looked like and what he was doing. This was going to be the first Christmas without him. I wondered if he missed me as much as I missed him. I wished I could send him a note to wish him a Merry Christmas to let him know where we were and that we were okay.
Saturday, December 25, 1971
Grandma asked if any of us would go to church with her tomorrow. Mom had stopped going to church a long time ago, and she had never been to church now that we lived in Canada. No one volunteered to go with grandma. Then I asked grandma, “Why do you want to go to church when you don’t speak or understand English?” Grandma smiled and said, “I may not be able to understand a word of it, but I know this is where the Lord wants me to be when it’s Sunday.” I felt bad that grandma was going to go to church alone so I told her I would go with her.
Mom looked up in the phone book and found where the nearest Mormon Church was located. She was also able to find out what time it started.
Since I had only lived in Canada for 5 months I didn’t understand much of what was going on either. Grandma slept through most of the meeting. As I sat there wishing for the time to go by faster, a man got up to give his talk. He caught my attention because I could swear that he kept saying the word Denmark
. I woke up grandma to tell her that I thought the speaker was from Denmark, but I wasn’t sure. I kept trying to listen to see if I could understand any of what he was saying. Then I told grandma that I think he is talking about himself and that he used to live there.
When sacrament was over grandma went up to the man and started to speak to him in Danish. I was so embarrassed, I wanted to die right there on the spot. I was sure the man thought that grandma was a crazy lady for speaking a funny language to him. I started to walk off as fast as I could. But to my surprise, the man spoke Danish back to her. Grandma told him she was here for a visit from Denmark. He told her that his name was Gert and that he and his brother Kjeld had lived in Canada for years.
Anyone from that ward could have given a talk that day, but it just happened to be Gert. Gert could have given a talk on anything but he chose to talk about Denmark. Grandma and I would have come and gone and no one would have known that we were there. But since the Lord works in mysterious ways, Gert got our address and had our church records sent to this ward. He also arranged for us to have visiting and home teachers. When we got home from church we couldn’t wait to tell mom all about Gert the Danish man we had talked to at church.
Later in the day, Grandma asked mom is she had any candy left over from Christmas. Mom assured her that it had all been eaten. When grandma was alone in the kitchen she started to snoop in all the cupboards. Grandma found a whole package of chocolate stuffed in the back. Just as grandma was finishing off the last piece of chocolate mom came back into the kitchen. Grandma said to mom, “I knew you would have something good stashed away.” Mom asked grandma what in the world she was talking about. Grandma showed her the wrapping from the chocolate she had eaten. Mom told grandma that was no regular chocolate that she just ate. It was ex-lax. It didn’t take long for the laxative to kick in. Grandma sat on the toilet for quite sometime after that. We could hear grandma complaining in the bathroom that her stomach hurt and that she was going to poop out all her innards. I was afraid that grandma was going to die, so I asked mom if her and Bent were going to take her to the doctor. Bent calmly responded that grandma was going to be fine in a few days. Which, thank goodness, she was.
Grandma stayed for three weeks. I was very sad to see her go back to Denmark again. Grandma promised me that she would come back again real soon. After grandma left everything went back to the way it had been before she got here. The attic was cold and food was scarce again.
February 1972
When we had eaten dinner a man knocked on the door. He said his name was Kjeld. It was Gert’s brother. The man that grandma and I had met while we were at church.
Since Kjeld spoke Danish to mom she let him in. Soon after this, we also started to get visiting teachers. Bent made it clear to mom that he didn’t want these Mormons in HIS home. The visiting teacher would come during the day, so Bent didn’t know they had been here.
Kjeld came with his companion in the evening. Mom didn’t know how to tell them that they couldn’t come anymore, so mom let them in. Then Bent went into his room and left through a window. We didn’t see Bent for the next three days. He went up in the mountains and stayed in the trailer that he had there. He would often go there when he wanted a break from us. He would always make sure to let Sander and I know that we were unbearable to be around because we were nothing but snot-nose brats.
When he came back he told mom never to let the home teachers in again. Mom told Bent that the next time they came, he could open the door and tell them himself.
When the home teachers came again, Bent was about to tell them not to come anymore. Kjeld told Bent about a church activity coming up and about the free food that they would be serving there. Bent told Kjeld that he didn’t want to go. Kjeld suggested that he could bring Sander and me to it. This sounded good to Bent because then we could get a free meal and that would save him money. After that, the home teachers were allowed to come again and they brought Sander and me a few times when there was a church activity. Bent ended up becoming very close friends with Kjeld over the years.
The visiting teachers sometimes picked me up for church on Sundays and for primary during the week. Sometimes I even took the bus by myself to the activities during the week. Why mom would allow me to do this all by myself I will never understand, because I was so young and it was not safe for me to make this trip in the evening.
March 1972
Since Sander and I were only allowed to take a bath once a week I ended up with a boil on my forehead. I didn’t know what it was at first. I only knew that it hurt. I thought a spider had bit me during the night since there were spiders crawling in the attic. My face was so swollen that it was hard for me to see out of my eyes. I felt bad about the way I looked so mom told me that I could stay home from school until I looked better. I wanted to go to the doctor but Bent told me that it was no big deal and that I was to keep the boil clean by washing it every day, and then squeeze the infection out. Eventually, it would go away. It was extremely painful. I missed about a week of school. Finally, the boil healed.
April 1972
While I was going to school, my name was changed to Anne. Everyone else in my class also had their names changed to more commonly used names. Sander’s name was changed to John since his middle name is Johny.
I was not prodigious so I had hoped to become friends with more kids from my class, but my class mates mostly stuck to their own nationality. The school that Sander and I went to also had other classes for regular Canadian children. At recess, I managed to make friends with some of these children. I became really good friends with a Canadian girl whose name was also Anne. Anne and I soon became best friends. Mom even allowed me to sometimes stay after school so I could go to her house and play for a while. Then I would take the bus home.
One day while I was playing with Anne at recess she asked me if I wanted to go with her to the candy store that was across the street. I reminded Anne that we were not to leave the school grounds from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. If we were caught breaking this rule we would have to go to the principal’s office and we would get a beating. In those days the teachers or the principal were allowed to hit you if you did not follow the school rules. Anne assured me that she did it all the time and that nothing ever happened to her.
When we got back from the store there was a teacher waiting for us on the school grounds. She had us go with her to the principal’s office so that we could get a beating. Anne was asked to go in first while I waited outside the principal’s office. I could hear Anne crying loud and hard. I was sure she was getting the worst beating of her life and I was to be next. Then the principle told me it was my turn to come into his office. I wasn’t scared, I just wanted to hurry and get the beating over with. When I got into his office the principle said, “I don’t like hitting children, and from the way Anne is crying it sounds like she is sorry for what you two have done.
Then he asked us to pretend that he had hit us both and not to let anyone know that he never punished us. As we left his office the principle said, “If you are ever caught leaving the school grounds again I WILL hit you, and it will be twice the beating.” We promised him that we would never leave the school grounds again. Since we didn’t want to get hit, both Anne and I kept our promise.
May 1972
It was almost the end of the school year. The teacher told me since I had learned to speak English so well that next year I would be going to the school close to where I lived. Sander’s teacher had told him the same. Some of the other kids in the class had to go again next year. It turned out to be good for Sander and I not to have anyone in our class that we could talk to. It forced us to learn the language.
June 1972
Hans, the man who lived in the basement, had gone to a health food store. When he came back he told Sander and I to come and see him in the basement. Then Hans showed us some figs that he had bought. He wanted us to have some. Sander and I had never tasted figs before. After that Hans would buy us some figs every time he had been to the health store. I don’t think Hans ever knew how much that meant to me.
School is out for the summer
Now that school was out, Sander and I played outside in the front yard. This time when the neighbor kids came over we were able to talk to them. They seemed surprised to hear how well we had learned to speak their language. That summer we made friends with a few of these kids from our block.
July 1972
My 11th birthday was coming up. I asked mom if I could invite some of my kids from school over for a birthday party. I could hardly believe that she said yes to it. Mom helped me to make out a few invitations. I was excited to be able to have a party. Mom went shopping for cake and ice cream. The kids I had invited lived so far away. They all called to tell me that they couldn’t make it. The only girl who came to my party was my new best friend Anne. I was so happy to have her come over. I was sad when it was time for Anne to go home because I didn’t know when I would get to see her again since she lived so far away.
When Anne had gone home, Bent threw a fit because of the food mom had bought for my party. He told mom never to let us have another birthday party for either Sander or me ever again.
September 1972
Now that school was to start again Sander and I were registered to start going to the school that was closest to Bent’s house. There were no school buses to take us. It took us a good 20 minutes to walk to school. We were both put a grade behind since we had spent a year in a special school learning to speak English. I was put in 4th grade. My new teacher’s name was Miss Waterman. She had never been married and was a mean old teacher. She was not at all like the teacher that I had had last year. The first day of school she made it clear to us that if any of us disobeyed her, she would hit us with her big long ruler.
I made sure to stay out of trouble. During the year there were a few kids who were brought in front of the class. Miss Waterman had the girls lie across her lap and then she would proceed to spank them. She also had the boys get in front of the class and told them to bend over. Then she got her long ruler and would hit them really hard across their bottom. I was relieved that I was never subjected to this humiliation.
I hardly read any English. The teacher arranged for me to have one of the kids in the older classes come to tutor me. When my tutor came we went out into the hall. The tutor had brought a book with her that I was to read. I told her that I was dumb and that I would never learn to read. She smiled and said that I should practice. I told her that since I couldn’t even learn to read in my own language, there was no way I was going to learn this language. I had convinced myself that I could never learn and I managed to convince the tutor also. From then on every time my tutor came, we would just sit out in the hall and talk until it was time to go back to class again. If only I had understood that I was capable of learning and that I wasn’t stupid like I was constantly told, I would not have had to wait till I was an adult to finally be able to read with out it being so hard for me.
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