72 Hours in Sweden

Stromstad and Gothensburg

To start off I just want to say that this was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had, and although it was only a short visit it really made an impression on me..

Tore, Behrit, Marie and I at their home in Stromstad, where my great great grandparents are from!
On the last day that we were in Sweden, Marie and Karl took us to the highest point in Goteborg. The church that their daughter, Saga was baptised in is also at this spot.
On Saturday night, we had one of the best Swedish dinners ever! This picture was taken after dinner, Malin on the left, lived with my grandparents when she was 16, and I was 4 yrs old. She is also Tore's niece, and their son is Jack, in the red, and Karl and Marie's daughter is Saga, in the blue. We loved their stripes, both were so so cute with their big blue eyes and toothless smiles!
Petter was making the first course, beet root, a french cheese of some sort, and slices of avocado and an italian wine! So soo good :)
Tore, is my grandmother's cousin, and he still lives in Stromstad with Behrit, and they both have been to America a few times, and have visited many times with my grandparents, and parents, and also with me when I was younger I found out. My mom warned me that he could drink me under the table, and he practically did have me swaggering out of the house! The stories he told during lunch had me in tears practically the whole time..
If you look really closel you can see that I'm holding the World's Smallest Swedish Horse! haha These are very common in Sweden and are hand carved and painted in bright reds, oranges, and blues in all different sizes. There are quite a few of them tucked into corners of both my house, and my grandmothers, so it was very special when Tore gave me one of my own to take back to Rome with me :)
Megs and I eating a Swedish lunch of shrimp, toast, spread, and cheese with cucumber..oh and white wine! So so yummy..as you can tell! Thanks Marie!
Megan and I not too far from where my great grandmother went to church and to school! Lots of crabbing, and fishing in Stromstad. The Summer is Stromstad's pretttiest season with the water, and boats, and fishing!
Karl, Megan, Saga and I on Friday afternoon, just after lunch in the GotesborgOperan. And don't be fooled by Karl's tall stature, he's a huge sweetheart, with a heart twice the size of his frame :) Miss him already. He's a truly great person..I'm glad to have gotten the chance to get to know him better.


These are the red cottages that are nestled throughout the Swedish countryside..its not uncommon to build your own summer home in Sweden. Tore built quite a few of the houses he lives in, and Marie and Karl plan to build one for themselves as well.

Marie and I in Stromstad..Miss you Swedish sister..

The picture below is of Saga and I. She's just like her parents, blinding blue eyes, and such long legs. She is destined for greatness..on either the tennis court or the runway. :) She will forever have a place in my heart.

If there was anything that I learned from my time in Sweden..it was not to forget where it is that you are from. How quickly generations can be bridged, and how the smile that you have, or the hands that you call your own may somehow resemble one who came before you..and the stories that you were told were at one time a real event of someone that was living and breathing just as you are now--

To Marie and Malin,

Spending time and sharing stories and memories made me realize that in the big scheme of things we were such a small part of each other's lives, and for such a short time..but the magic of it, if you will, is that the "7 year old" me impacted the teenagers that you once were... And, now the women that they have grown up to be have, and will continue to influence the woman that I want to be. For all of the stories that no one else could have told me, and all of the things that I hadn't remembered, for providing me with the opportunities to meet, and see things that I may not have ever gotten the chance to..I will forever be grateful.

It took me a long time to figure out what it was about my time in Sweden that changed me, that took hold of me so strongly, and so quickly.. it was not that it dragged me back into the past, but that it truly unraveled me..and what surprised me looking back on it now, is that I allowed it to.

When I hugged Karl, Marie, and Saga goodbye on that Sunday afternoon, I could barely turn back and wave as I walked towards the flight gate. I was so overcome with emotion..with humility and gratitude, that I couldn't hold back my tears any longer. I had fallen so quickly in love with this country...and couldn't fathom leaving it so soon after I had found it.

So as I walked onto the plane I took with me the knowledge that everything would be okay. Yes, I was leaving Sweden, and although it had spent time unraveling me..it had also helped piece me back together.

I sat looking out the window of the airplane recollecting on the past 72 hours of my life.. I realized that I had been carrying these "pieces" with me all along. I carried more than 21 years of memories and stories, but ones that dated back to 1918, when my great grandmother had the gall to leave Stromstad at the age of 18, alone, bound for Ellis Island and the hope for opportunity..

as the thoughts of my weekend came flooding back to me I began to smile. 72 hours earlier, I had thought that it was strictly my own smile.. but now I felt it growing even bigger as I recalled Tore pointing out that it was very much like that of my grandfathers'.. on a face so similar to that of my mothers'. The personality that I thought was of my own cultivation was also deeply rooted in humility and sentimentality, both qualities that depicted my father and mother in countless stories rehatched by Marie, Tore and Malin over laughter and tears.. The small hands that now hold a pencil as it floats across journal pages are similar to those of the artist that is my grandmother. And finally, the name that I carry day in and day out, year after year, through the rain and shine, and through the tears and the laughter is the same one that my great, great grandmother carried throughout the events that make up her life story.

..And so, it's easy to see that Sweden unraveled me, but it may not be so easy to see that it pieced me back together again. And in doing so, left me with much more than I had bargained for. A new addition, a new story that I believe, will make up one of the greatest stories of my life.