My Story

          My name is Liselot Rina Wolters, i am a daughter of a farmer in the 1820's and this is the story of my life. I and my two brothers live on a small farm out of the city. My father works hard and long hours with my Brothers to make sure the crops grow up well enough to sell for a decent price and so there is enough for us to eat. We had a plain sandwich with a slice of our preserved meat and some cheese for breakfast. For Lunch we had the same thing. Since i was the lady of the house i mostly did chores like cleaning, wash clothes, make supper (breakfast and lunch too), and sometimes i got to feed our animals but the oldest son Adrianus took care of the animals. The second oldest son Elian helps Father with the crops. I am the second youngest there is my little sister Leonie she's energetic so sometimes i let her do some laundry with me but she mostly plays with the few toys she has , handy-downs from me, she brightens the household with her hopeful mind. After a while we were having some serious money trouble so ,out of my control, Father and my brothers decided that Adrianus shall go and do some side work at a town not too far away little did we know that would backfire at us.

          Adrianus did get work fast over at the town but it wasn't the good kind, Father was weary but Adrianus being strong minded ignored him and went into the work not paying attention to the warnings. Me and Elian had to pick up the work while Adrianus was away. A few days later Adrianus came home bloody and injured severely I was surprised he even reached the house but we quickly get him in and clear the table. I remove his shirt too see where the wounds where and I quickly use a washcloth so apply pressure I told Elian to hold it as i get my sewing kit and as Father was taking Leonie too her bed to go too sleep so she wouldn't see the mess. I fix Adrianus as much as i can but he isn't in good condition, Father and Elian moved him to his room. Adrainus lasted only about ten hours but even though i kept telling him to save his breath he explained to Father what had happen but he urged on that we needed to leave but Adrianus got his stubbornness from somewhere. After Adrianus died we held a funeral in his name where he liked to be when he had freetime, under a tree surrounded by flowers.

          Father made Elian, Leonie, and Me leave our house, we all made the long trip to the docks to where we would be sailed off to the US. It took us a week to get there which we had too hurry because the ship would leave with or without some of the passengers. When we got there Leonie was already tired from the trip but also when we arrived Father told us he would not be going, i couldn't believe he would say that! He explained that he had already went and bought our tickets but he couldn't leave the house where his wife, our mom, had died and now even his son did before him. He also said that he would not have it any other way of him dying not on the land he was born on.

          We went on aboard the ship waving goodbye to our Father as Leonie not fully understanding but still waves goodbye and i realize that she probably doesn't know that this might be the last time she sees him. Once we get on board we see lots of other people onboard not all ,what i'm guessing, are the sailors. We quietly find our room which is near the crews quarters, we get glares from other passenger while we walk, Elian glares back at them which surprises them but i elbow him every time he does, not wanting to back enemies so early on.

          When we get to the room me and Elian examined it, Its very dark and looks a little damp but Elian found a candle in the room somehow and lit it with the match next to it I mentally thank Father for packing some candles with matches in our bags. We use the small flame to look around better but to our disappointment there's one bed thats hung up and a slab of wood on the other side both have what looks like a thin raggy cloth which as Leonie pointed out as a "blankie".

          Me and Elian sightly nod to each other in agreement that Leonie gets the hanging bed, less of a chance that a rat will get to her, I gently rub Leonie's head and tell her to get some sleep on the bed. She doesn't reject to my idea and lays down, Elian gently puts the one blanket on Leonie, I sit down on the bed and kiss her forehead as she drifts off to sleep.

          Elian Sits down on the slab of a bed on the other side of the room ,which really is three steps away from me at max, and sighs in disappointment and frustration. I sit next to him and we quietly talk to discuss how long we would be here and what to do about the sleeping situation. We agreed that we would take turns sleeping on the bed with Leonie or the slab.

          The days began to fog together and before i knew it we had made some friends a mid age couple with four kids. Leonia fit right in with the younger boy and girl the couple had, Their names are Mies and Robin, i thought they had weird names but i had later learned that the guy had been from the US! Elian had made friends with Puck which was the oldest son of the family.

          It had been a hard and long trip, our clothes were dirty, our hair was matted, we had barely any food left from the four weeks we had been at sea. We saw other ships dropping off people as well many different faces but i held onto Leonia's hand tightly with Elian and we walked through the crowd until we got into a opening we saw tall buildings. We walked around and we ended up finding the family we meet on the boat! I suddenly remembered something that Father had said to me about why we were going "you can start a new better life over there".

          I wish that would have been true. We got a place to live it looked like a achterbuurt(slum) but the room was much better than the one on the boat. It was a decent sized room at least 4 times the size of the one the boat, we didn't have a ice box but we stored food by salted it but we also mostly ate the food fresh.

          Elian found factory work quickly before i did but he complained about the dirtiness of the factory and how it was cramped, he met some nice people there but he also had runned into very hostile people who would sometimes try and pick a fight with Elian , he of course didn't give in to it even though there was the temptation. It only took Elian two days to find work, it took me five days since I was taking care of Leonie and teaching her of things to do around the house while we were gone besides playing with her toys.

           We both agreed that even though we needed the money Leonie would not work. We made a decent amount of 22 shillings per week even if it wasn't a bunch we lived off of it.