Sunday, November 8, 2009

Welcome to Manchester

Hello, my name is Lola Johanson and I have just moved to Manchester. I am 20 years old and I have left my extremely wealthy family in France to come here and start a new life. I had one child, a baby girl, who sadly did not make it here alive. My husband disappeared immediately after Layla was born. I am here on my own, ready to make a living for myself. Word in France was that Britain is home of all of the latest and greatest inventions, and they have a textile industry with 52 million pounds of cotton. With railroads criss-crossing and factories steaming, Manchester is just the place I have been looking for.

Living in the countryside of France was dreadful. The estate where I usually stayed in was big enough to house the French army and a few more, and everywhere I looked there was some maid just waiting for me to ask them for something. I never saw any of my multiple mothers and my father was always off taking care of some business related need. My 16 siblings were always at parties or gambling or out spending our father’s money in the most absurd ways imaginable. I needed to get out of there before I turned into one of them, which I promised myself I would not let happen.

Richard, my first love and once husband, was always in full support of my plans I had for the future. We were going to have a family, get married, and start a school system in the local town near my estate. However, once I got pregnant with Layla, everything seemed to go downhill. Arguments were the only conversations we had, and I began seeing less and less of him. Then Layla was born, on October 7th, and Richard was gone. No one ever saw him again. After that tragedy I knew I had to get out of that town, away from everything that reminded me of him and our future plans we had together. I took what I could fit into a knapsack and headed south with Layla. However due to the fact that she was was born premature, she did not make it even a week. Having lost both my husband and a child, I continued on my voyage to Manchester. Upon my arrival, I can only hope to turn my life around.

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