Thị Minh Châu Nguyễn

I feel at home here. Most of my family is here, and through the Catholic Church I have a large circle of friends, as well as friends from the Vietnamese community and my work. I want for nothing, and today I feel more at home here than I do in Vietnam.

I have never resorted to tears over the things I have experienced. I was a soldier in Vietnam, and I have seen many things I wish I hadn’t. My life here in Denmark has not always been a bed of roses. The financial crisis hit my husband and I pretty hard, we owned a restaurant, but we could barely afford to live. I have never cried about my situation. When I studied HF we did an essay about Hans Christian Andersen. I had to read ”The Little Match Girl”, her pain hit me, and suddenly I started crying. It was like being thrown back to another time. Back to the time when I was a young girl who went to school in Laos, which is where I read the story about the little girl who had nothing. I still get tears in my eyes when I think of her, and I don’t know why, it just hits me. I retired two years ago, but just couldn’t cope with sitting at home, so I now work part time in the home service and I love being able to provide the elderly with the care they need. My own father is in his late 90s and lives with my sister. It is a huge responsibility to take on when you also have a job and a family to take care of. So I think that the Danish nursing home system is an excellent solution, it gives freedom to the children and the safety that my sister needs in the daily life.

66 years / female / in a relationship / children / København V / trained engineer / health care worker / from Vietnam /came to Denmark in 1980 / residence permit same year