Jana Novak

When I feel foreign it is because of the language, so perhaps I am 20% foreign. I have always been judged on the basis of my qualifications as a designer and a human being. Not on my background, which I appreciate.

I was raised in a loving home with a mother and a father kissing each other until the very end, and I have always aspired to create a loving family of my own. I share a house with my son and his family, and it is such a blessing to be close to my grandchildren. Creativeness has always played a big role in my life, and I try to pass it on to them via puppetry, drawing and play, and I become so happy and touched by their imaginative ideas. However, my family life has also been associated with grief. Some 18 years ago my daughter walked out, and she has refused to see me ever since. She has told her father that this was due to an episode just after we arrived in Denmark, when I was supposed to have locked her up in the basement. I have no idea where the story comes from, and I would have liked to talk it over it with her, because the knowledge of it all being based on some misunderstanding is unbearable. When my mother was dying I moved in with her and slept in a bed next to hers, and she told me about her childhood, her youth, her love life, everything.

Today there is nothing more I need to speak to my mother about, and when I think back to those days, it is with deep affection. I hope that one day I may say an equally beautiful goodbye to my children.

71 years / female / single / children / Hårlev / designer / from Czechoslovakia / came to Denmark in 1974 / residence permit same year