– It is easy to say that someone was special when they are no longer here. – But with Birgitte it feels completely true. She was. And she had become something big. These are the words of one of Birgitte’s friends growing up. She does not want to provide her name and photo. In this case, it has been challenging to get those who knew Birgitte Tengs to come forward for an interview. We have spoken to many. Several say it will be too tough. Others will vote anonymously. But some openly talk about the time they knew Birgitte during her 17-year life. The poem from maternal grandmother Birgitte Tengs was born in March 1978. She grew up in the small seaside place Sund outside Kopervik with her mother and father, Karin and Torger Tengs. Grandma and grandpa live nearby. Grandfather is inspired to write the poem “Veslejenta veks” for his one-year-old granddaughter. It is reproduced like this in Bjørn Olav Jah’s book “Who killed Birgitte?: A pair of trill-round eyes that twinkle and are full of life, Wheel-legged with the stump in the air, Crow like a rooster, look it’s a weasel! She has learned to crawl and crawl. Certainly they have built Statfjord A Of course they can go to the moon, But it’s petty against the weasel, Because now she can crawl, and soon she can walk. If there is a competition in the joy, And a capable judge judges, Yes, then I am sure that the weasel will win. Over the years, it will appear that the grandchild also likes to write. The poem to Gro In 1985, she starts first grade at Sund School. There are only two of them in the class. SCHOOL GIRL: Birgitte Tengs (th) with teacher Per Sverre Bårdsen. Photo: Private Per Sverre Bårdsen remembers his pupil well. And her poems. He hangs the one about the peacock in glass and frame in the classroom. She sends that about SV politician Hanna Kvanmo in the post to Gro Harlem Brundtland. And then she gets a letter back with “thank you”. – It was great, recalls Bårdsen. GOOD MEMORIES: Per Sverre Bårdsen was Birgitte’s teacher at primary school. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news In 1987 Haugesund’s Avis visits Sund School with a journalist and photographer. Then the nine-year-old girl started a new trend. A ball of yarn in glass has been given eyes, and eventually almost the whole school makes dolls out of balls of yarn. TREND STARTER: Birgitte Tengs on the cover of Haugesunds Avis with her glass globe dolls, in June 1987. Photo: Faksimile / Haugesunds Avis In second and third grade, she and her classmate write the detective story “D-mus barna”. They write and write. Chapter after chapter. About Sandra, Simon and Siv in the town of Smellby. For half a year, they write the story, which eventually becomes a book, which the teacher prints out in several copies. In an interview with Haugesund’s Avis in February 1988, the girls say that they are inspired by the books about Frøken Detektiv and Hardyguttente. The newspaper chooses to print the story chapter by chapter on the children’s pages. Then young readers can follow the mystery week after week. But Birgitte Tengs is also very fond of animals. On a boat trip with Dad, she demands that he take the boat back to shore to put an ant that has strayed on board off. Although dad would rather slap it and haul it into the sea. CONFIRMED: Birgitte Tengs was confirmed Human-Ethically in 1993. Photo: Arne Gunnar Olsen / news In 1991 she started secondary school. She goes on summer holidays with her friends. Arguing, and becoming friends again. Eventually, the youth club U99 in Kopervik becomes a popular place for young people. In diary notes news has gained access to, she describes that she likes to talk to boys. That they open up to her. She also loves to sing. Preferably all the time. Preferably “The rooster is standing in the pantry.” In the TV 2 documentary “Who killed Birgitte?” childhood friend Merete Ellingsen describes how every quiet moment is filled with Birgitte’s song. Whether they are cycling or walking, she sings almost all the time. But she wants to be an organist. The last year, at the eternal camp school When she starts the music course at Skeisvang high school in Haugesund in the autumn of 1994, her instrument is the church organ. The music course is like being in an eternal camp school. They are often at school from morning to evening. – She was perhaps the prototype of a music student. She was involved in many genres and always interested in what others were doing, says Arne Vestbø. CLASS FRIEND: Arne Vestbø was in Birgitte’s class at Skeisvang upper secondary school. Photo: Ilja C. Hendel / Culture Council The two are in the same class at Skeisvang. Today he lives in Oslo. And even though it has been 27 years since he last saw her, she is impossible to forget. – There was a girl you really wanted to be with and get to know. She was always happy, he describes. Every week she practices the organ in the orange brick church of Our Saviour, right in the middle of Haugesund. But Vestbø also remembers the singing voice and the breadth and interest when it came to music, art and culture. – I played in a band with three others from the class, and I remember she liked that very much. She called herself our biggest fan. Birgitte always stands when the Haugesund band Leaf is performing. Vestbø particularly remembers the Christmas rock concert at the cultural center Gamle Slaktehuset in December 1994. Leaf has just finished her set when Birgitte runs up on stage and gives all four of them a big hug. – We were the best band she had ever heard and she was looking forward to following us on, says Vestbø. But when the music line choir performs major classical works, Birgitte is just as committed to it. Vestbø also remembers her as curious about life and the people in it. She goes to rock concerts in Haugesund. But is also involved in the prayer house environment on Karmøy. In April 1995, she invites to a class party at her home in Karmøy. The classmates must take a bus before they walk the last distance into Sundvegen. The house is slightly secluded, five kilometers west of the center of Kopervik. But Birgitte knows advice. To make sure the guests find the right house, she carries the vacuum cleaner out and places it in the road outside the driveway. – It is very telling for Birgitte. She was creative and funny in the way she did things. She had a bright outlook on life, says Vestbø. Birgitte Tengs lived until 6 May 1995. A common trauma Fortunately, they have each other. And good teachers, because as young people they stand in the middle of the shock and grief. The class goes out to the crime scene several times. It becomes important for the students to process together. And that they get to talk about Birgitte. THE MEMORIAL STONE: at Gamle Sundsveg. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news At the funeral, Leaf plays two songs. To his biggest fan. And the music line choir sings Mendelsohn. – It cannot of course be compared to what the family experiences, says Vestbø. But the loss of her friend is a common trauma for the friends from the music line when they meet today. Another of Birgitte’s friends from childhood, who also does not want to be interviewed, still wants to say one thing about her friend. – She always brought out the best in others. No matter who she was with.
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Who was Birgitte Tengs? – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
