Ellis Island: En immigrants personlige fortælling

Ellis IslandWhen I look back on this picture I get so many different feelings back from this time. It was the hardest time of my life, but also the most important time. The picture was taken on arrival at Ellis Island 1908. I still remember what I thought when the picture was taken. I thought about the things we had left behind us, and all the things there are going to happen. But most of all I was thinking about my love of my love Simon. I am the oldest kid in the picture, and back then I was 16. Because I was the oldest I had most responsibility. On the trip to Ellis Island I needed to be strong. Dad left Denmark before us. When he got fired, and he couldn’t find another job in Denmark, he decided to travel to Ellis Island. First he took away alone just to see if there was a job he could get. Of course dad had left some money for us in Denmark, so we could eat for them while he was gone. But mom and I decided to save them, just in case dad didn’t get a job. So we lived on the money mom and I worked for, we didn’t get that much money, so we needed to work hard. I remember that month to be so hard. My family and I have always worked hart to get food on the table, and it made it just even harder that we didn’t had dads help. After a month we got a letter from dad saying that he got a job. So we took the next bout to Ellis Island, the bout trip was the craziest thing I’ve ever tried. There were so many Danish people on the bout, and one of them was my dear love Simon. We fall in love so fast, and the love grew bigger. We were on the bout in few days, but it was enough to make us unreachable. But when we got to Ellis Island, he didn’t come in at first. I was waiting for days for him to come. But the days went by, and I didn’t see him, in 3 weeks. It was so hard not too see him. Dad’s work wasn’t that great, as we thought. He worked so hard for days, and his paid wasn’t good. My oldest little sister was 11 years old back then, we got the same job in a little store close to our house. But one day in the store, Simon walked in. It gave me a good feeling rushing through my body. He took me out on a walk, where he told me that he was away in such a long time, because he had to get to a job interview, and he got the job. Since then I have never worried about money.