Thanks Roskilde & Iceflower.
Roskilde also found this nice little article from a local paper, and being pressed for time, I'll cover for her.
Drømmebesøg af Kronprinsessen - Halsnæs Avis
In the town of Hundested is located a residence for youth who have issues at home. That home is appropriately called Home, and here lives seven young people aged 15-19.
The charity organisation Børnehjælpsdagen = Child's Aide Day fulfill wishes submitted by those who live in such homes.
One such wish was submitted by the residents in this home.
Anyway, Mary arrived and was met with the leader of the home, the current residents of the home and also former residents. (Because to some this genuinely
is their first real home). In fact the flowerboy, Villy, was the son of such a former resident.
Then Mary met Gitte, a former resident of this home, who had written her story like a kind of fairytale. A moving story about a girl with a troubled lige who came to this home and with the help of a magic Easter Egg her life was changed. (A classic Cinderella story, which sadly so many girls in these homes dream about).
The story visibly moved both Mary and the journalists present.
Then Gitte's daughter presented Mary a wooden Easter Egg.
Another resident of the home, Karina, met Mary. And she was over the moon. Not only had a wish for her to go to Greenland been granted by Børnehjælpsdagen, but she also met Mary face to face.
Eighteen year old Charlotte, another resident, said afterwards: "My... I was completely surprised that she gave me a hug. - It was utterly incredible to be so close to her, that's a very special feeling".
Patrick, age fifteen, said: "She was completely down to earth. That's an experience you'll always remember, there are not many who will experince this".
Mary stayed for an hour and a half, which is more than usual for royal visits. (i.e. some 50-60 minutes on average).
Børnehjælpsdagen celebrates it's 110th anniversary this year.
Halsnæs Avis: Kronprinsessen på besøg i opholdsstedet Home
Villy, with mother Gitte, presenting flowers to Mary.
More on the touching story from the home, here from BT:
Mary opfyldte ønskedrøm på opholdssted: Vildt at blive krammet af Kronprinsessen - Danmark | www.bt.dk
The young at the home had made a wish for Mary to come and visit them.
In their partition, if you can call it that, they had stated various reasons:
"I would be the happiest girl for at least six months".
"I would feel proud and chosen, like a special person".
Fourteen year old Merle said: "When you were a little pratt, you always played princess and thought a princess was so cool. And today we were hugged by a real princess, and she was home at our place. That was totally surreal".
Camilla, age sixteen: "She was very interested in seeing our rooms, and she was quiet and calm (i.e. not over-enthusiastic) and you could sense she was interested in other people. She asked about the pictures on my wall. If I'd painted them and such".
Karina, age eighteen, told her story: "I got tears in my eyes, when I saw her. It was utterly fantastic, even if you feel you know her, then it's still something completely different when she's suddenly at home with us at Home and wanted to talk with us. I just felt so totally happy and chosen/singled out.
My mother couldn't look after me and I only got to know my dad when I was twelve. And he lives in Jutland. So when I was four I came to a home, and then I went somewhere else, then to a foster family and then I've been here at Home since I was fourteen.
It just changed everything when I came here to Home. It changed it all and now I take my life serious.
I'm fortunate in having two wishes fulfilled. My next dream is that my mormor (maternal grandmother) can put the cap on my head (Karina will graduate from HF, a kind of high school this summer and on graduation most will wear a cap) but she lives in Greenland and she can't really afford to come down here and visit me"
Karina plans to go to university and study chemistry or math: "These are my best subjects, these I'm really good at. I'm a breaker of pattern = a breaker of her social legacy".
In the picture, Karina is the one standing next to Mary wearing a blue jacket.
Today, seven children in DK will be removed from their parents and placed in a home or at a foster family. That sounds like a lot and perhaps it is. The municipalities, most of them at least, have adopted a better safe than sorry policy.
Currently some 16.000 children live at homes, with relatives or foster parents.
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