I wrote a blog and republished it as a e-book. Here is the first chapter:
I was born in Denmark. My father is from Denmark and my mother from the United States. She came to Denmark because she got a good job at the former Sheraton Hotel in Copenhagen. They married and bought a house in the Danish town Hillerod north of Copenhagen. I remember the time as very good. I had very many friends in Kindergarten and at the school.
But then my father experienced a work related accident which crippled him so he couldn’t continue with his old line of work. We had to move to an area closer to Copenhagen where the income needed for housing isn’t that high. It took its toll on my parents’ marriage and in the end they divorced. The hotel was sold to another chain and my mother decided to move back to the states. Because I have been living all my life in Denmark they decided to let me stay with my father.
I had difficulties adjusting to life in what some would regard as social housing. My friends came from a totally different background and because I tried to fit in my behavior changed. Some might call it a sub-culture where everyone out there watched each other’s back against the police and the social services. It was tough times but not nearly as bad as today where criminal gangs have taken over and shootings and weapons are everyday life.
Years went by and I found myself being 15 years of age. The apartment where I was supposed to live was only a place for me to sleep. While we always were on good terms he had plenty of problems of his own to manage me. I had to take care of myself. After the seventh form it was clear that I would never make it through high school. The path laid out in front of me was business school and a job in a supermarket. I had no ambitions but just wanted to live from day to day.
My lack of goals in life and my grades in school was not something my mother was fond of. She really wanted me to take the High school exam. But school was of no interest for me. My life was filled with friends, parties and my latest boyfriend which I will choose to call John. We were together all the time and I often slept at his place which my father did choose to accept. When my mother learned of John she exploded. My father told her to forget it. He had custody of me. She had elected to leave and he was in charge.
Then she offered that I could go to live with her and spend a year in a high school in her town. Due to the strict requirements to the curriculum in Danish Schools made by the Danish department of education I could not transfer credits back to Denmark but as she told me it would be a nice change for me to experience something new. I was tempted but it would mean that I would leave my boyfriend behind so I declined as politely as I could.
Then she offered that I could spend the summer holidays at her place if I got good grades, which I accepted. I passed my exams with an average C – almost D. She sounded like she accepted that it was a good result.
So June 2006 I left for a holiday or at least so I believed.
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Janice
United on the Deathbed 