Cardboard & Cigarettes
Based on the true story of a young immigrant girl
by Eelkje VanderMeulen-Smart

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No ordinary childhood of a young immigrant girl growing up in Alberta, Canada, rolls out fast, exciting, colourful and authentic. The astonishing thing is life was really like that. Left alone in a tiny, dark closet, with only a cardboard box, I tore off a piece of the cardboard, and stuck it in my mouth, and chewed and chewed and chewed before swallowing. He my teacher was chasing me down the street and the whole time he was screaming at the top of his lungs, "You're really in trouble this time!" “Oh God help me,” I prayed. I was so afraid of my teacher and never wanted to go back to school again. Growing up as an immigrant child is not easy. The pressure they face is high. Unlike adults, children are still in the process of creating their identities and being caught between two cultures can create internal conflicts. We arrived in a completely new environment with its share of challenges. Having to rebuild our lives from the bottom up.

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Eelkje VanderMeulen-Smart was born in Leeuwarden, Holland and moved to Alberta, Canada as a young child. She let her creativity and imagination take hold and became a writer and a painter of people, places and things. She lives in Red Deer, Alberta, with her husband and is the mother of three sons.

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Contributors

Author

Eelkje VanderMeulen-Smart

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