AND PEOPLE STAYED HOME

written in 1869 by Kathleen O’Mara.
Reprinted during Spanish flu
Pandemic, 1919

And people stayed at home
And read books
And listened
And they rested
And did exercises
And made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened
More deeply
Someone meditated, someone prayed
Someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed.
And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal
And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices
And dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.

MAKING ASSAULT WEAPONS ILLEGAL.

Today Canada made assault weapons.

Thank you Canada.

I lived in United States for almost eight years and it is unbelievable how many mass shooting they have because they allow people owning assault weapons.

Those kind of guns do NOT belong in a home.

They are military weapons.


 Vibeke Lindhardt
1 May 2020

A DAY IN A LIFE OF A GRANDMOTHER

I wrote this when I went to help Linda with her new baby in July 1985.  This was her sixth child and she was only 28years old.

Her other children were Heidi, age nine, Adam age eight, Nicholas age five, Simon age four and Joshua age two. Heidi was born in Trail, Adam in Vernon and the rest of them in Calgary.

Drawing of me by Adam

Simon says: “Take down the picture of the horse.  The horse’s eye is looking at me all the time.

Adam is laying on the couch.

Nick says to Adam: “Are you the Mother”. 

Adam: “No”

Nick: “Why are you then laying down”

(Linda has been sick a lot the last year and have laid down a lot)

Heidi and me wanted to go swimming one day, but we could not get in.

Me: I wonder what kind of swimming goes on right now”

Heidi: “Swimming is for old people like you” (I am 47)

Simon – age four – still cannot say the letter L.

He says. “Nichonas, cnose the door.”

It is 7:00 a.m.

I give baby Nephi a bottle and a clean diaper.

Then Nicholas and Simon comes down and plays with the 4by4.

Simon gets upset because he does not have a 4by4 and ask me why I did not give him any.

The baby needs burping.

Adam comes down and dumps all his space Legos that he has gathered since he was two years old.

Nicholas asks if he can play too. “No” says Adam.  They are MY space Legos.

I ask Adam to let Nicholas and Simon play too.  He finally let them and explains to them how to do it. Nicholas says “I can do it by myself”.  I say: “Let Nicholas do it his way Adam”. “But he can’t do it, Adam says.  “well, maybe not your way, but his own way” I say.

The baby does not burb.

Joshua is calling “Eidi” from upstairs.

Simon- age four - goes and get Joshua – age 2 out of his crip.

Joshua comes down with his “Ba-Ba” (It is a bottle looking like Barney from the Flintstone cartoon)

Joshua shows me his bottle and says: “ba-ba” – which means “Please give me apple juice in my bottle)

Joshua does not speak much. He has problems with his hearing.  The doctor think it might be his adenoids and he see a specialist tomorrow to have his hearing checked.

He might need to go to a speech therapist.

The baby is burping

Joshua needs clothes on. He has taken off his pamper and runs around in his birthday suit.

Heidi is still sleeping.  She needs a bit more sleep than the boys because she is epileptic.

Baby Nephi burped and is now smiling and talking.  Pretty good for a seven-week-old baby.

Everybody crowds around Nephi to see “the wonder of a baby smiling and talking.

Joshua go into the space legos.  Adam starts his “Monkey-scream”, that means jumping and crying at the same time, while the arms move all over.

Joshua gets upset and throw one of the space-wings right across the room.

 I got to get dressed.  It is 8’oclock.

Heidi just came down and all the kids are asking what are we eating for breakfast.

Flemming is still sleeping, bus he has to get to work at 9:00 a.m., so he will probably get up soon.  He has clothes to wash and a sewing machine to fix.

I walk upstairs after having just put the baby in his rocking chair which is hung up in the door between the kitchen and living room.

It is a comfortable condo they live in with sliding doors in the kitchen.

The kids have lots of room to play.  In the back is a gulley and it is a dead-end street so the traffic is low.

It is raining today, so we have to find things to do inside. When the weather is good, the kids play outside most of the day and goes swimming in the afternoon.  They have a family pass to the pool.

I need a bath but can’t find my underwear. It is lost in all the laundry and I can’t leave the 6 kids for a long time, so I will have to wait and just do a “cat wash”. I guess I will take on jeans and a top since the weather is cool.

Condo living seems to bring a bond among the children.  The children have more friends and adults visit more forth and back and get the need of socializing fulfilled.

Adam is going to play with Dale and Dustin. 

Joshua has to go the hospital for an operation.  He has to get his adenoids out and tubes in his ears.  He can’t hear.

We are going swimming

The kids are sleeping downstairs.

Nicholas do not like clowns.

Heidi got a birthstone ring.

I am cleaning up the yard.

The kids are having a water fight. Heidi is watering the flowers.

I am tired and exhausted Mormor

1985
Cochrane, Alberta, Canada

Covid-19 - April 11 2020 update

In the whole world 1.780.314 cases with 108.827 deaths

United States 532.879 with 20.577 deaths

Denmark 5.966 with 260 deaths

Alberta corona virus cases 1569 with 40 deaths


People are asked to stay inside except for nurses and doctors and truck drivers and food deliverers like Joshua and Tammy who are working for SKIP and UBER,


Grocery stores are open and are starting to have more items to purchase, but are still out of masks and sanitize-rs.



Vibeke Lindhardt

WHEN I WAS 21

One of my grandchildren asked me recently what I did when I was 21 years old. That was in 1959.

Keld Harly Neumann Johansen and I had been married for two years and we had a little girl: Sussie Linda Neumann Johansen.

We lived in a two-bedroom apartment with a nice balcony in Banefløjen number 10, on the 2^nd floor in Husum, Copenhagen, Denmark. It was brand new apartments and we loved living there.

We lived in the apartment to the right with the yellow cloth

This walkway I walked on every day to take Linda to daycare center or to the Husum train station

I was a Bookkeeper and worked for the Government at the Department of Finance on “Børsen” downtown Copenhagen and even though Keld had a five-year trade as a “Bookbinder” he was working as a “Mailman” – just like his two brother Bent and Jackie. 

Keld - 2nd from left - with some of his Mailman Buddy's who played in a "Mailman Band".

Børsen

23 February 1959 Keld and I joined "The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints" and that totally changed our lives.

Below us, on the first floor lived Lizzie and Pall Nolsøe. They moved in about 1-2 months after us – in 1957. We became really good friends and had many good times with the Nolsøe family.

hey had a little boy Christian Nolsøe, that became Linda’s best friend.  Later they had two little girls we name “putte” and “søsser”.

Pall was born on the Faroa Island and always talked about moving back there with his family, but Lizzie really did not want to move away from Denmark and her family.

They had “really” old grandmother who took care of the kids while they were at work. She always made cookies and of course Linda liked that.

One thing I really enjoyed was when Pall got sun-dried fish from his home land.  Neither Lizzie, nor Keld liked it that much, so Pall and I would have a feast.

Pall was very creative.  He wrote poems and painted landscapes from his home country.

Christian Nolsøe

 Lizzie and Pall Nolsøe

Lizzie and Christian playing the piano.

I would usually get up at 5:00 a.m. and get myself and Linda ready for the day. I would either walk the baby-buggy to the Daycare center – about 2 miles – together with another young mother or drive my bike with Linda in a seat behind me.

I always felt bad about leaving my little girl at the daycare.

I wanted to take care of her myself, but Keld and I both had to work in order to pay our bills.

Linda and her daycare group.

In the winter time I would take “Sporvognen” to work in the winter time. In spring and the summer I would ride my bike – 8 miles to work at the government building called Børsen”.

After work, I would pick up Linda from daycare and then go grocery shopping on the way back. I usually had two bags hanging on the baby buggy - if I was walking.

 Then it was time to go home and cook dinner and after dinner cooking the cloth diapers on the stove, then rinse them in our bathtub and hang them up in the bathroom with clothespins.

We only had access once a month to “washing in the basement”. That was when we would do our “Storvask” – Big clean which included linen etc.  One good thing about the “basement cleaning room” was that they had huge rollers to “press” all your clothes, so we pressed everything, including the diapers.

I would usually cook all our meals at night and then Keld and I would take turns either doing the dishes or “putting Linda to bed” which meant we read stories and sang for her every night for about an hour.

In the evening I would either sew clothes for Linda and myself or knit sweaters for us. Many times I would take apart my own dress. Wash the cloth and then make clothes for Linda out of my old dress.

Linda is here wearing a dress that I made from one of my old dresses.

Later I would take evening classes at "The Royal Academy Of Arts" where I took a 3 year degree in tailoring and sewing.  My teacher was Sara Dressø.  I also later took Block printing the same place.

Yes, it was a good and interesting and busy life and a time when we were very happy.

Vibeke Lindhardt.

11 April 2020

CORONA VIRUS TODAY IN CANADA 26 March 2020

All non-essential stores are closed. No access to Assisted Living places

IN THE WORLD TODAY”

about 70.000 cases in the United States

I hope and pray that "This too will pass".

Vibeke Lindhardt

The Corona Virus Pandemic

The last two months has turned the world up-side down with the scare of a Pandemic.

As I write this there has been 150.000 cases in the world of the Corona Virus and 5.600 death, but not everybody has been tested since in the United States they are lacking resources to test everybody, besides President Donald Trump was in denial in the beginning and played the whole thing down.

In Canada 176 cases, but no death.

Italy and Denmark have closed their borders and The United States are not allowing any planes arriving from Europe, except United Kingdom.

There is no allowance of large gatherings anywhere.  It is the first time in the 60 years I have been a member of “The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” that the church have closed their buildings and no allowed any meetings. 

Even all the Temples will be closed as of this coming Monday March 16^th. They will only open the temple for weddings.

It makes me think of “The black plague” pandemic in 1918.

My mother Else Margrethe Gunhild Emmely Rasmussen was 11 years old at the time and lived with her foster parents Jens Peter Larsen and Marie Sofie.

Jens Peter Larsen passed away 23 December 1918 from the Black Plague and my mother was totally devasted.

My mother really loved her foster dad, but that was not the only reason. Marie Sofie forced my mother to look at Jens Peter while he was laying there “totally black” in the coffin.

Also, my mother never did like her Foster mother Marie Sofie because she always pushed her around like a little slave.

I am hoping that the Corona Virus will not end up like the 1918 pandemic.

In the meantime, I am practicing staying calm and to “find” some toilet paper to purchase. People are raiding toilet paper and cleaning supplies and food from the grocery stores.

I understand that “Craigs List” now if selling one role of toilet paper for $200 and that is too much for me, then I will have to do what my parents did under the war.  Use newspaper.

Vibeke Lindhardt

14 March 2020