Helenka

It is the 23rd of December 1997. It is cold outside, outside the window snow is falling, the Christmas tree is already decorated and in the sitting room children of various ages are sitting and watching television. Suddenly the doors open and  “aunt” governess comes in and takes a little girl from the room. When I went down the stairs I didn’t realize that this would change my whole life. At that time I was seven years old.
When I was five my biological mother took me to a sanatorium and she never came back for me. So I went to a diagnostic institute and after that to the children’s home in Krásné Lípa. During her occasional visits and in her letters my mother promised me that should would, in time, take me back home and everything would be ok. But this never came to pass. After sometime even the letters stopped coming.
On that 23rd of December the family Zezulova where waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. Parents and two small boys. I went home with them for the Christmas holidays and the whole time I was there, I didn’t speak. After returning to the children’s home the director asked me if I would like to continue to stay in the home or if I would like to go with the Zezulova family. So I went with them and so began my new life.                                                                                                                                                 
 After five years with the Zezulova family my surname was changed and I finally became an official Zezulová. This year, on the 23rd of December, it will be fourteen years since I joined the family. I am one of the few who were lucky and now have a home.
I am now 21 years old, I studied at art school and at the moment I am looking for work and becoming more independent. I enjoy painting on whatever possible, I like company, art, music and books. At home there are now eight of us and when we all get together, it is really great.
And even if it was never easy with me (and maybe even now it still isn’t), I am incredibly grateful that I have a family, siblings and a place I can come back to. I also know that my relationship with my parents was never ideal and I probably never managed to show them how important they are to me and that I love them. But I am happy that I have them. That they are for me my parents. That I can call  someone “mummy” and “daddy” . .