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Prologue

The name of Chiquita Neven du Mont's book is "My 7 Lives".

In her first life the author describes her sheltered childhood in the strict traditional home of her parents in London where Nanny looked after and taught little Chiquita manners. Now in her 7th life she communicates with her friends and grandsons by internet! There is hardly a generation during which so many important changes happened as during the lifetime of the author.

Her parents and grandparents still lived in large houses with servants. During her childhood she was torn out of that world and was taken to an entirely different one in Bavaria, when her mother married an Austrian in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. She was faced with a life in an alien country. She did not even speak the language, it was to be a depressing life under a domineering step father.

She gets married very young to escape … but unsuccessfully! Chiquita adapts to the circumstances which only change when she can leave Germany after World War II and make her way to France. There she enjoys a new kind of life with her Russian friends in Paris. After years of darkness during the war, she enjoys the lights! Newly divorced in 1952 she goes to Hamburg practically penniless, but a friend finds her a first job as a photo model. During this time she masters a problem which actually only appears 20 years later: she has to find the balance between work and bringing up two sons single-handedly. Her sons mean everything to her: for Christian she refuses a career as an actress in the forties. She works hard for a decade. Chiquita develops a will of iron! She translates filmscripts and technical reports, works as an interpreter at exhibitions and still does some modelling, all jobs that were not well paid in those days!

She goes to the U.S. and comes back to London where she remarries. This marriage does not last either. The author is too independent and the situation is problematic because her sons are always more important to her than her husband. At the beginning of the nineties the author has enough experience to earn a small fortune through her work. The recession in the U.K. begins and she helps start a costume jewellery business which turns into a worldwide success. Through this work she says she lost her shyness. Now finally settled in Spain life is quieter although who knows what she might do next? For many people Chiquita Neven du Mont is an example of strength, fitness and straightforwardness. One never hears her say "in my days". During her 7 lives she accepted the challenges without complaining and made the best of them, and there were many!

Many a hardship during the author's life could have been avoided if she had swallowed her pride and asked her family for help.

Erika Meyer-Borrmann and Günter Borrmann,

Königslutter 2011