HARDSHIPS

When the population was made aware of a Covid-19 pandemic last year in February 2020 many people panicked.

The last year have been difficult for everybody in many different ways. Loss of jobs, poverty, and inability to be with friends and family members.

Many people have gone through many hardships because of the pandemic and millions have died.

We have also had a covid-death in our family.

In March 2020 as I was walking into Walmart, a medium sized truck parked outside, and a couple was frantically loading the truck with toilet paper as if somebody would steal it from them.

They were not the only ones hoarding toilet paper.  Within the next couple of days there was no toilet paper to be bought in neither Walmart nor any other grocery store.

I made me think of my childhood. we did not have any toilet paper problems, because in our family we did have any “regular” toilet paper nor a toilet that could flush. My Dad would rib up newspapers for us to use and that was it.

 

EXPECTATIONS OF material needs.

Today we seem to be so dependent on materialistic things.

When me and my two sisters Inge Lise and Birgit were raised, we were not used to getting “things”

Nor were we having “choices” of foods from a menu. In the morning it was oatmeal porridge in the winter and raw oats with milk in the summer. No Cinnamon toast nor Fruit loops.

Sometimes as a treat my Mom would make what we called YMER. It looked a bit like Yogurt. She would place the whole milk outside in the sun and it would “set”.  She would then fry roasted dark rye bread to spread on top.

If it was special days, she would bake Danish Cinnamon Buns. Under the war fruits were scarce. I was eight years old before I tasted a banana.

 

TRANSPORTATION

We had no car. Only bicycles and those we could not drive if there was snow in winter, so we had to walk.

In my first five grades I walked 2.5 mile to school and 2.5 mile back home.

Sometimes in the winter we would have frost bites in our toes and the remedy was that we had to pee on our feet to make the frost bites go away.

 

NO HEAT IN THE WHOLE HOUSE IN THE WINTER

We had a wood stove for cooking food in the kitchen and a stand-up wood heater in the living room – but no heat in the bedrooms.

Every night through the winter,  my Dad would heat up five red bricks in our kitchen “wood stove”. Then he would wrap them in newspaper and then in towels and place them in our beds to keep our feet warm.

We slept with warm homemade pajamas and hats on under the goose feather downs.

 

READY TO LEAVE AT ANY TIME

Under the 2^nd world War when the Germans took over our country, nobody was allowed out at night when it turned dark because we had to pull the BLACK shades which was required so no light would show out from homes.

Every evening my Dad would check our “bug-out” bags that he had made. They were ready in case we suddenly had to leave if the Germans came to get us.” There they were 5 pack sacks and polished shoes standing in the hallway for five years.

One thing I have never been able to figure out though “why my Dad always polished our shoes.

Every night my Dad would listen to the BBC, and we were happy when Vera Lynn would sing “We’ll Meet Again” – Don’t know where, Don’t know when.

 

Instead of being so critical of the medical professionals we need to let the pandemic help us to care more for people instead of making politics out of it.

We need better appreciation for our lives and not let the pandemic divide families and friends.

Vibeke Lindhardt

24 July 2021