Helle Cecilie Palmer has written a book about life as a lion mother

Helle is an alternate to the Løvemammaene's central board, and has been involved since the very beginning. Now she has written a book about the experiences she has gained after seven years as a lion mother.

Helle works daily as a journalist and commentator in Agenda Magasin, where she often writes texts about the welfare state. Now the commitment has become a book. The process has taken several years, she says.

- It has been tough to write. It is not the kind of book that can be written in one go, because it is incredibly emotional to recall the heaviest and most painful moments I have experienced. But it has also been therapeutic, in a way.

In the book, Helle tells about the shock when the youngest girl Aurora, who was five months old at the time, suddenly fell seriously ill and her life was turned upside down. A few years later, the same thing happened to the youngest Snorre. The family has long experience in dealing with an aid apparatus with different levels of administration, departments and units that do not talk to each other.

- The book is a critique of what does not work in the welfare state. But I wanted to convey the criticism through my family's history. The work with the care money campaign and later the Løvemammaene have taught us that factual criticism intertwined with personal stories resonates with people. That is what I want to do with this book, says Helle.

It has also been important for Helle to tell Aurora's story in a dignified and good way. Aurora is a child who herself will not be able to tell the world who she is. Helle has devoted the book's last chapter to finding out more about who Aurora is - for better or for worse.

- We don't know much about Aurora's future, Helle points out. - But we go there together.

On Friday 13 January, we could see Helle tell her story on Good Morning Norway. Also Aftenposten and The daily newspaper has written about Helle and the book. Read more about the book at the publisher's website.