Saying goodbye to the house

This makes me think of a poignant story told by Laurie's late aunt, Ina Holm.
She was born in the U.S., but her family moved back to Sweden for three years,
leaving again for America when Ina was six years old. Her grandmother Kajsa
lost some of her children to emigration, one to disease, and one died in an
accident. After Ina and her immediate family returned to America, only one
of Kajsa's children, a daughter, remained in Sweden.

Kajsa lived on a farm on Öna ("the island"). Ina had a memory of Kajsa
on the day they left for America: the old woman, standing on a hill at the farm,
crying and waving and waving her apron as she watched the family leave.

The young Ina didn't feel sad at the time; she was excited about going on the big
boat again. But many years later the sadness struck her as she recalled her grandmother
waving the apron, until she disappeared from their view (and they from hers). Ina once
said in a letter that surely her father must also have cried about the separation.
She added: "The Swedes are stoics, but I suspect it's only on the outside."

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© 2006 Mike Arst