When I was going on 17 my mother
came to me one day after having received a letter from her sister-in-law
Elly. Tante Elly asked if I would be
interested in writing to her daughter Birthe who was learning English in
school. Me, want to write a letter? What’s the address and can I have a
stamped. We started an enthusiastic
correspondence both so happy to meet each other and learn about what life was
like on the other side of the world.
Birthe and I had many things in
common, we were close in age, loved western shows and the same type of
music. On my birthday though she didn’t
realize for many years that she had introduced me to a lifelong love of
amber. She sent me a gorgeous amber
pendant necklace made from a stone she had found on the beach near her
home. I was enthralled not just by the
beauty of the piece but also about how amber was made and that she could find
it on the beach!
I have a somewhat large
collection of amber now, earrings and pendants but no pins or bracelets or even
bead necklaces. Those are the pieces I
seem drawn to and I wear them a lot.
When I went to Denmark at 18
Birthe and I also found another common interest; we loved to dance and those
were the days of discotheques so we were always running off to some club or
other. Never anything too exotic or wild
but lots of fun. It was many years later
before I realized that Birthe was actually one year younger than I as we had to
be 18 to get into most clubs!
Our correspondence waned a little
after this, life gets in the way with husbands and babies but whenever I
travelled to Denmark we always connected again as though no time has
passed. And since my diagnosis Birthe
and her 3 siblings have been amazing sending me beautiful parcels of the things
they know make me happy in my Danish-ness.
Who knew how much a beloved cousin can remember about my lovely of
Danish jam, Laeso salt, marzipan (well, that is a given I suppose) and
Christmas elves?
It is wonderful to know that
cousins can also be friends and these are connections that never break.
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