Scania

Helsingborg

1994 we were moving from Frinnaryd, Aneby kommun, Jönköpings län (Småland) to Helsingborg, because I have got the chance for a job close to here. For my husband Ibrahim, we did not choose Landskrona, were I had a good chance to get a job.

That was the first time for us, we lived in a condo. I did not have the money needed, to buy that condo, but at that time my late aunt Ursula was still alive and she was so kind to give me a loan. We lived there for a couple of years until I was able to buy a bigger condo in Ödåkra, outside Helsingborg, where we also lived for some years. During our time in Helsingborg, my eldest son came to live in a home for people with Aspergers syndrom.

During a class in Swedish, which I attendet, I had to write a project work and I chose to write about, how it is to live with children with disabilities. I concentrated on disabilities one cannot see, when meeting the children or adults. Their behaviors are affected of their disabilities. Here also a social worker – a curator, recommended me to write a book about our life.

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Malmö

We moved from Ödåkra till Malmö-Oxie and lived here for actually six years, but I run out of money and had to sell the condo. There was no possibility for me to rent an apartment, but my son Daniel did get his first own apartment here, when I, together with Samuel and Maria, moved to Perstorp. My money had gott to publish my first book “Familj med särskilda behov” = “Family with special needs”. Even I worked as hard as I could – I took jobs even under my holidays, I could not get my expenses covered, because the book was selling badly. I was selling to all the Scandinavian countries, but only one or two at a time. Most of my books I sold to libraries, but all together I sold max. 200 hundred of 1000 I had ordered.

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Perstorp

We were very lucky to get an apartment at this place. The landlord was really good. We also changed to another, smaller apartment, when Samuel moved to his own place (in Malmö). The not so bright side of this little town, was, that there were no many jobs. Some weeks I was working up to 60 hours, other weeks I had none. The employment agency recommended me for the local municipality as an extra. That meant I and a lot more people, did get a fulltime job, but only our unemployment contribution. That was cheap for the municipality. The meaning with this kind of jobs, was, to get a real job there after a while, but the municipality did tell us, they have no money to employ us. I was a researcher and the left hand of the director of the community – he already had a secretary – the right hand. For a while I also were an extra for this secretary. During the summer month I was working in the tourism office. As a researcher and “left hand” I also was designing the new corporate design. The municipality of Malmö spent 3 Million SEK for that, if I remember right. I did not get any extra paid for it, just the contribution for unemployed people – as I already wrote above.

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There is more to write about this time, I try to do that soon, but so far you can read my books:

In Swedish: Familj med särskilda behov

In German: Schweden (k)ein Schlaraffenland

In English: Family with Special Needs

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By the way, I changed my first name in 2008 from Ursula to Dorothee and my last name in 2017 from Schröder till Hildebrandt. Therefore the autors name is Ursula Schröder and not Dorothee Hildebrandt. I also have to point out, that the German version is the version ready for printing. Unfortunately, I miss the others and for the English version I have not had a lecturer. I hope you will have foregiveness regarding to my poor English.