It was a little after noon when the men came for everything. Pulling open the door, I was faced with three wide chests covered in the gray uniform all soldiers wear. I wasn’t sure why soldiers had been sent.  After all it was only my mother, my little sister Henrietta and Momma. Papa had left to get firewood early one morning and never returned. That had been a little less than a month before.

Now the government had come to take everything we owned; the house, our possessions, I even thought they might take the clothes that we wore and leave us naked and homeless. But they didn’t and I felt that we were somehow lucky that my idea had not been realized.

The first man, a tall and rather ugly bearded fellow pushed  the door open even wider, as if I was going to try to keep it closed.

All three stepped inside past me. Momma knew that this day was coming. We had been forewarned but still her face was laced with terror and a deep felt sadness at what was happening.

The soldier explained that he was here to take the house and the furniture. He didn’t explain why, we knew why. We had fallen so deep into debt that it would be impossible to work off the payments with Momma alone. I wasn’t old enough to get a real job, though I did almost all the chores around the house.

“Do you have a place to go?” the soldier asked, motioning for the others to go around the house and assess the items. We didn’t have much but the government had said that if we gave them the house all our debts would be paid off. Momma nodded to the soldier. She had never liked them. When she was younger she had a child, a son. He had been playing in the forest and was accidentally killed by soldiers during a routine drill.

We were going to live with my aunt in Copenhagen or at least that was the plan. The soldier nodded and moved off to join his partners.

A half-hour they returned and said we could leave. Momma had on a thick coat and the soldier touched it as she passed by.

“We need this too,” he explained softly, trying to sound at least a little humane.

Tear welled in Momma’s eyes. She shook her head, crying out that it was her dead mother’s coat that had been in the family for years. The soldier was quiet for a long time, trying to decide what to do. I remember thinking that he must be raging a war with himself; the soldier in him telling him to do his job. The kindness in him telling him that one coat won’t make a difference.

“Get on,” he growled fiercely, releasing the coat. We ran out of the house hoping and praying that he wouldn’t change his mind.


Copenhagen in 1878 was a bustling seaport city, the capital of the Danish kingdom. It held a rare beauty that only seaside cities could hold.

I had been crying all night, as had Henrietta and Momma. I missed home. Staring out the small window in my aunt’s house I could see the clear water and beyond the ships. I could imagine our house, quiet and empty.

A strange thought came to me then, an idea. I imagined father coming home, saying he stayed with some hermit all month, only to find us gone. How would he know where we are? He wouldn’t.

Getting up, I walked around the bed to Momma’s side. I gently touched her cheek and she stirred.

“I miss Papa,” I whispered quietly. She reached out and pulled me into a hug. I felt her heart beat against my chest for a soothing moment.

She gently stirred Henrietta and said to us, “I have a surprise for you.” She got up and went to her coat. She ripped an inside area of cloth near the pocket and pulled out black and white checker pieces. She ripped some cloth near the back and pulled out the checkerboard, but she didn’t have to explain.

I was crying even more now than ever, but this time from happiness. She set out the checkerboard; the one Papa had made for us, and placed the checker pieces, ones Papa carved, on the board.

Henrietta took a seat across the table from Momma and watched intently. I leaned over Momma’s shoulder as they began to play.

“You know,” Momma quietly mused. “They can take our home, my husband and son but they can’t take the memories.”

She looked at the checkerboard for a moment, a small smile on her face. “No one can.”