HELGA HANSEN

Coming to America, the journey of a 21 year old

Helga was born in Germany but immigrated to the United States in 1960 after a friend found her a sponsor. She received her “Green Card” and left her family and her nice office job in Bonn, Germany, to become a domestic in Concord, Ma. She arrived at Boston Logan Airport on January 12. 1960 at 3:AM in the midst of a Blizzard where her sponsors were waiting for her. She had no idea what a domestic was since her mother always did the cooking, laundry, and cleaning. However, this changed in a hurry. She was shown to her room with her own bathroom, a luxury she never had before. She liked it a lot except that her room was next to the back door, which she had to use since the front door was off-limits to her. After she was outfitted with a smart-looking grey uniform, little lace apron, and all, she was good to go. Mrs. French, the sponsor, was very patient, especially since there was also a bit of a language barrier; it took some time. Helga wondered, all my English studies in school and all the private lessons, what good are they? She should have remembered that her private tutor was from Ireland. Anyway, after 18 months, she decided to leave Concord to go to San Francisco on a Greyhound bus. It took four days, but it was very interesting. She met a lot of nice people. However, her luggage was lost in Chicago. In Wyoming, she thought they were making a movie. After all, she had never seen real cowboys before. Helga was only supposed to stay in the US for one year, but that didn’t happen, no matter how much her parents wanted her to come home. She loved it here and in 2008 became a proud US citizen after 48 years.