I was born in Copenhagen, Denmark - Bispebjerg to be exact
The first year of my life we lived in an appartment on Statholdervej - My father was a hairdresser with own business and my mother was at home with my halfsister and brother - then my parents decided to emigrate to America and as I was too little to have any say in this, well I went along - We sailed to America from Sweden with a steamship named Gripsholm - the year must have been 1947
Our first home was in White Plaines - later my parents moved to Flushing Queens and they were shortly after divorced.
I attended school when I was 5 or 6 and my first school was PS 165 in Flushing Queens.
It was when we lived here we got our first dog, a white mix, named Tina - both my sister, Gerda, and I attended this school
My mother began to work for Scandinavien Airlines Systems and my father expanded with more and more salons around the country and on luxury liners as well as a travel agency - his main salon was in the St Moritz on Manhatten, just across the street from Central Park , where I spent a lot of time during my childhood - I loved staying with my dad and I loved wondering around Central Park, skating in Winter and sailing in Summer - once in a while my sister and I were sent on holidays to Denmark to visit family
Growing up in NY, my dad always spoke Danish to us kids, which was a good thing later in life
At one time when my dad came to Denmark I waited for him at the airport, but got sidetracked by the fact that actor/singer Bob Hope was also onboard, so here is a photo that was published in a magazine - yes, me at right ...
Due to the fact that I was born as a "blue child", which meant I had a hole in my heart, I needed surgery, however this was not an option in America, so surgery was done in Denmark. Being in Denmark meant leaving my sister and brothers behind in America for almost a year and we unfortunately grew apart - At this time I got my second dog, a wirehaired foxterrier
Later in life my sister married a dentist and had 3 children, my brother became a doctor, married a Swedish girl an had 3 children and my little baby brother also became a dentist but never married although he has a daughter
My brothers dental clinics in USA
After highschool I worked in Germany near Frankfurt as an au-pair girl -
here I met my first husband, Charles Henry Taylor, who was the first love of my live and the father of my only child, Tina.
This is Tina 2009 with my 2 basenjis, Mickey and his daughter, Asta -
note, Tina is very much like her dad in features
We moved to Pennsylvania and my inlaws in a very small house but not for long - we were too
young and Chuck was eager to go to Vietnam as the soldier he was, however he never went, and just as well !
(My first love died in 2006 suffereing a heart attack - our daughter was with him at the end)
----------------------------------
I went to New York and stayed with my father and got a job at the Worldīs Fair (1965) buildt on Flushing Meadows, where I
used to play cowboys and indians as a little girl -
It was hard being a single mother in America in the 60īs, so I returned to Denmark with Tina
Instead I went to Artcollage and became a graphic designer and moved to London, England (1970) to work. Our first home was Dedworth Windsor, England where Tina attended school and a few years later we moved to Lightwater, Surrey, with my second husband, Mr Wright, who turned out to be Mr Wrong big time!
In 1972 when living in England I bought our first basenji and later a pharoah hound
I worked very hard as a graphic designer and at different advertising agencies, so to unwind and avoid stress (as if at dogshows !) Tina and I attended dogshows at weekends around the country. We had some great times and made a lot of friends - but never got an English Champion to call my own
After a very frightening experience at Earls Court in London (IRA bomb) I decided to move to Denmark with Tina and 4 of my dogs. There were other reasons for leaving England, but they shall remain private
Back in Denmark and hopefully for good, I began yet a new part of my life with Tina. I found a job as a graphic designer and continued with this line of work almost the rest of my working life - and in my spare time I continued to show my basenjis and
pharaoh hounds all over Europe and with great success, if I may say so myself
I felt we were safe being in Denmark in the late 70īs and Tina did well at school and had her heart set on becoming a chef which she eventually did - and in the late 80's she moved to USA of all places ! This I would never have foreseen (now in 2010, Tina has returned to Denmark and hopefully for good) - both my father and mother have passed away as well as the second love of my life - something I will never get over and find it hard to talk about, let alone write - however it is part of my life
My littlebrother, Carl Peter & our Dad - April 1984
10 years later we had to say Good-bye to our Dad and I still miss him every day -
My mother suffered a stroke during an operation - here she is in the nearby nursinghome where I visited her every day til she
passed away Christmas 2003
I am still in Denmark & here I shall stay having entered the new world of the Internet, I design websites, collages and other graphics, however I have stopped travelling to dogshows and bred my last basenji litter born December 1, 2009 and look forward to one more thing: attending the WorldDogShow in Herning, Denmark middle of June 2010
My health is not of the best - I have made Peace with God, as best I could and I am ready
when He is and look forward to being with the ones I have lost and miss so dearly
BUT before I go, I want to say:
When my life has reached it's very end, and I take that final breath,
I want to know I've left behind, some "good" before my death
That maybe I have brought a smile to someone else's face
and made one moment a little sweeter, while they dwelled here in this place
Lord, please be my reminder and whisper softly in my ear...
To be a "giver" not a "taker" in the years I have left here
For if not a heart be touched by me, and not a smile was left behind...
Then the life that I am blessed with, will have been a waste of time
With all my heart, I truly hope, to leave something here on Earth
that touched another, made them smile and gave to my life worth
Author Unknown