Sunday, May 19, 2019
Monday, May 13, 2019
HE FELL SO LOW
He fell so
low.
It was a
blow.
He used to
be
a glowing
Star
They felt
his might.
A light so
bright
They came to
him
from near
and Far.
But that was
lost
with limits
crossed,
Absent of
pride
his spirit
died.
He lost his
soul
and lifelong
goal.
of being
strong.
Nothing to
hide.
No longer
strong
to sing his
song.
He wants to
fight
against the
light.
He lost it
all.
No longer
tall.
His star
grew dark.
No longer
bright.
Vibeke
Lindhardt
13 May 2019
Vibeksonja.blogspot.com
Monday, May 6, 2019
MY
LIFE IN LETHBRIDGE. ALBERTA, CANADA
I immigrated to Canada from Copenhagen with my ex. Keld
Neumann Johansen and my daughter Sussie Linda 1966. We left Copenhagen around November 25th
on the ship “Batory”.
It was a 10-day trip where I spent most of the time in the
cabin throwing up, while Keld and Linda enjoyed all the good foods and the
swimming pool.
We arrived in Quebec and drove with a train three days
arriving in Edmonton Dec. 8 1966.
Our friends Dick and Arvella Jensen opened their home to
the three of us, plus our St.Bernard dog Ponti. We stayed with Dick and Arvella
for three weeks when Keld was lucky finding work with the Heintzmann Piano
company in Lethbridge and January 1, 1967 we moved to 1818, 5th Ave
North in Lethbridge.
Here is the first house we lived in, in Lethbridge with our
blue Van.
We brought only $1000 to Canada with us and spent half of that on our
Van. We took a gamble with our money, but Keld needed a vehicle in order to
travel and tune pianos and the Heintzman Company constantly sent him to Trail
and Castlegar, British Columbia to tune pianos.
Even though we felt more comfortable in a “bigger” city –
Lethbridge at that time had a population of about 35.000 – than Coleman, the
change from city life in Copenhagen, Denmark with a population of 1 million was
HUGE.
Honestly, if it was not for our great desire of adopting a
native boy, I could have gone back to Denmark any time. Canada freaked me out.
nevertheless, we stayed, and Linda liked her school:
This
is a photo of the School Linda went to. The three kid are her triplets: Sarah,
Catie and Jarom.
We wanted to enroll her in dancing on roller-skates as she
had done in Denmark, but could not find any place for her, so instead she
started “ice skating”.
Eventually after we moved to British Columbia, Linda became
a pro in Ice skating.
DAIRY
QUEEN AND A&W SAVED OUR SANITY.
We found out where “Dairy Queen” was on 13th Ave
N. and that was one of Linda’s favorite things to do in Lethbridge. At that time Dairy Queen had an advertising
that said, “LET’S LIVE A LITTLE, COME TO
DAIRY QUEEN”.
Well, Linda often asked if “we could go and live a little”,
so we walked up 5th Ave N to 13th street to the Dairy
Queen and had a 10-cent cone. We did not
feel we could afford the 29 cent “Banana Split”.
A&W
Of course, we also become very familiar with A&W. (McDonald
did not exist at that time)
Everybody owned these galloon bottles and
went to A&W to get them filled up with root beer.(Some people made their
own rootbeer at home).
You would just drive up the A&W and a
girl or boy would come out to the car and serve your food on a tray that they
hung on the car. Wow. We were impressed.
We were also impressed by all the snassy
vehicles (that we could not afford)
Our
friends ERIKA AND KARL SOMMERFELDT
I strongly believe that if it was not for the help of Karl
and Erika Sommerfeldt “who happened to live just a few doors down from us”, I
would not emotionally have survived. Karl and Erika and their two kids Michael
and Christine became our “emotional saviors”. Karl and Erika for Keld and I and
Michael for Linda. They became “best
friends” and Michael helped Linda learn English, even though he was a little
guy.
Erika and I would do a lot of things together and she
taught me “The Canadian way of life”. She helped us fill out papers to adopt
our baby boy whom we picked up in Calgary in June 1967.
Erika was teaching me “The Canadian way of life: F. ex. I
washed and ironed Harly’s diapers. One day Erika stopped by and saw me ironing
the diapers. She looked at me in shock and said “What are you doing”. I am
ironing. Her respond was. “No, no you
are in Canada now”. “We do not iron
diapers and pillow cases and sheets”. Well, that was the end of me ironing all
Harly’ diapers, shirts etc.
Erika was born in Denmark, raised in Germany. Karl went on
a mission to Germany and found his sweetheart there.
Here is an old photo of Christine Karl and Erika’s daughter. I was visiting them. At that time, I lived in Vernon, BC
The bond that was between the Sommerfeldts and the Neumann
Johansens became very strong. We were
more like family than “just neighbors”.
I will always be eternal grateful for what they did for us.
We became “friends for life”. Here is a photo
of Christine and me that I took on a later visit to “The Sommerfeldts” in
Lethbridge.
LINDA
LOVED HER LITTLE BROTHER HARLY SO MUCH
Linda was so proud of her little baby brother. She brought him to school for “show and
tell”.
Linda in Lethbridge 1967
BACK
IN LETHBRIDGE 2018
I moved back to Lethbridge 30 November 2018.
Photo of 1818 5th Ave as it
looks now. It looks like nobody live there.
It is falling apart.
When we moved to Canada there was not much population in
the South of Lethbridge, but now Lethbridge has grown to a city of 120.000
people and the South has not only developed a lot, but many of the major
businesses are in the South.
It is good to be back in Lethbridge. I am happy to be in
the same household as Linda’s son Joshua and his wife Tammy.
Vibeke Lindhardt
6 May 2019
Vibekesonja.blogspot.com
Saturday, May 4, 2019
SOME OF US ARE OLD ENOUGH TO STILL REMEMBER.
5 May 1945
I was eight years old,
but I still remember standing in line with all the other Danes waving a flag
for the English and American troops.
They were throwing gums
and chocolate and us kids were quick to pick it up. We had never seen gum before. But we did not
have the full understanding of “what it meant” that we now had peace.
At that time my family,
my Dad Lars Vilhelm Henry Madsen and my mom Else, my sisters Inge Lise and
Birgit in Taarnby, Amager, Copenhagen, Denmark when it happened. We lived on Munkebjergvej 53.
My childhood memories
until then was with my Dad listening to the BBC radio every day, rolling down
the black blinds every night. Us kids thought “that was normal living”. We did
not know better. But my parents knew that 5 May 1945 was HUGE.
After five years, they could finally remove the blinds and
they placed candles in the windows which became our symbol of peace.
The things us kids most
thought about was that “now we could eat bananas” and chocolate.
75 years of peace thanks to England and USA
being allies.
We have now had peace for almost 75 years
United States have in those years had strong
allies in Europe.
If USA is not careful, history could repeat
itself.
Vibeke Lindhardt
5 May 2019
Vibekesonja.blogspot.com
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