Swedish National Hemtjänst - Swedish National Home Service

   In my post yesterday, April 16, I provided a prevue of today's post in the form of a photograph. There I was, a neighbor on one side, and my Home-Service person of the day, whom I designated as I. I am waiting for him to appear today since this is one of my "Let's take a walk days."

   I do not know exactly when he will appear but I do know that there are 4 of us on this street waiting for him to turn up. The other three are women, ages unknown. I am the only male and I am pretty sure I am also the oldest.

   Now I am going to tell you, my American family about the different kinds of help I get here and wonder whether there is a counterpart in your part of the USA.

   I will continue to use a single letter for each person, if there is an individual who is helping.

Mathem - Mathem is an On-Line supermarket that shows me on-line a bright image of every object that can be ordered with price and weight, volume, or number as is appropriate for tomatoes as a familiar example.

   Home Services has registered me with an account that is set up so that I do not pay anything for delivery. One of the HS staff appears on Monday every week, ready to take my order. This week it was S who would place my order. She is a young woman who is a Kurd born in the Kurdish part of Iran bordering a Kurdish part of Iraq. She wears the traditional Muslim Chador and has just ended Ramadan with traditional celebration here in Sweden.

   She sits down, takes out her phone, registers me at my account, and is ready for me to tell her one item at a time what I want to order. I name it and she with lightning fast thumbs finds a picture and shows me - a container of milk for example. Tell her which kind and how large - Light milk, 1.5 liters. That becomes number one on the list.We move through my choices, and I am told the total cost at any point. I choose to end when the total is 450 Swedish crowns.

   She sends the order, tells me delivery will be on Thursday morning between 9:30 and 11:00 and that I must be here to take the delivery which will be in large cardboard boxes. All the frozen foods must be put into the freezer directly.

   I used to have to take a trolley to either a small local store, Tempo, or to a very large supermarket, ICA Focus. I would have a back pack and weighted down take the return trolley and walk a few  100 meters to my door. Always too heavy, often too difficult. Not any more.

   S asks if there is anything she can do for me as she leaves and yes, she can. She can take a brown paper bag with food waste to be put in a container across the street. That food waste will become fuel to be fed into a giant incinerator where water is heated to high temperature. Hot water from that incinerator arrives at every apartment or business in this area, hot water that heats my home and also heats water for my kitchen and my bathroom.

  I will add others to this post after each has done something for me. Noontime, Wednesday, signing off.

International Day With Ann and 

my Ethiopian promenade guide at 3B

Ann was my first Guardian Angel to be presented here in my blog. She has been here twice a w eek since that first day, that day treated about 5 posts down.

Today, Tuesday, April 16, was very satisfying and especially importtant because it illustrates the importance of being able to take promenades with a support perso aad the importance of wide-ranging conversation in keeping home-bound people of sound mind and body.

Settling In --When Ann arrives she has to first settle in so we can take our time to talk and have  coffee and, for me, the fancy cookies she bought at the very fine bakery at Frölunda Torg.

   We did that and we have gotten quite good at having conversations about matters within our wide range of subjects in common.

   Then time for my first walk of the day when Ann will carry a big box of stuff to the recycling cente located across the street in back of the white truck. The building is where my Frisk Rehab physical therapist is located.

   We took my longest walk to date, down along Allén where all of the trees are not at all well,  won't survive very long. Then we came back and really settled down to talk about my getting low-cost taxi service and then, about something very different, the country where one of my walker assistants I was born, Ethiopia. He was scheduled to come today and I was sure that would set the stage for an interesting conversation. Why? 

    Ann lived in Ethiopia, I was a manuscript reviewer and English language expert for a team of maternal care researchers at Karolinska who had a major project in Ethiopia, and I am learning all the time from "I" ( choose not to use the names of the many people who come here to help me)

   He did appear, I introduced him to Ann and her to him, and they were quickly into a fascinating conversation since she knows the area where he came from and where she lived.

   Then he and I left to take my second walk for the day. Ann went out onto the scaffolding and took the picture of us, stopping to talk with a neighbor of mine who helps to keep the lawn spic and span and also arranges get togethers.

I am in the maroon jacket in the center, my neighbor in black to my  left, and I on my right.

   We walked and talked about my other helpers, all of whom I knows, and he said he will be back tomorrow for another visit and walk.

   This became a wonderful day and I use this story as the lead in to a future post about my helpers.

    Comments welcome, just click on comment below this text.

 Guardian Angel III

 

I present Guardian Angel III, my son Gary Lundgren who did an almost impossible task, finding 3 days when he could put himself in this position where he who towers over me could find a seat with room over his head. He is officially retired and had recently made one Trans-Atlantic trip that took him and his wife to a ship traveling up the Norwegian coast so close to Sweden but not free to drop in here at 3B.

He took on the Guardian Angel role to come here to see what he could do to help me and to get up to date on my new life, home alone at 3B supported by the Swedish Home Services system staff members and my very own family angels.

Another Frodi Sister - Here is Gary with Ann Frodi's younger sister, Majt at the entrance to 3B. You will learn more about Majt as Guardian Angel V or VI perhaps but here we stick with what Gary had to offer his home-bound father.

Gary and his wife had already booked a vacation in Jamaica but he was able to squeez in a 3 or 4 day trip to Göteborg, move in at 3B and get to work in my apartment  while I told him all about my new life where I never can leave my home alone.

Immediately, here on Swedish time 6 hours different from State of Maine time, he went to work in my kitchen. He restored it to like new condition listening to me and telling me about his life as a grandfather with three grandkids, all three of whom are my Great Grandchildren.

Here I am reading a card from Daphne Lundgren who gets to spend quite a bit of time with her Grandpa. Photo of Daphne coming, I hope.

I first met Daphne when she was only a few months old, and that was fun. I will not be making any more trips to the USA so I rely on the grandchild trio to make cards just as I did about 87 years ago, cards I  still have.

Gary and Majt really hit if off together talking non-stop a mile a miuute while Ann and I sat on the couch that opened up was Gary's too small bed. Majt and Ann left and Gary got his first chance to hear about my local support team, a man from Ethiopia, a woman from Somalia, another woman, a Kurd from Turkey whose parents had fled from Turkey to Borås where my helper was born - do not know her name yet. There is also a woman from Bosnia who cleans my apartment, and last but not least, a Swedish woman who grew up here and knows a lot about support offered in a building across the street from me where girls with troubled lives get help to restore those lives to a life that is at least better in one or more ways.

Signed off here at kl. 17.01 on the 9th, and sent the link to this blog to Madeleine our Red Cross leader at Kåken, the restored prison that houses a library and the Language Cafe where we Red Cross volunteers get to know visitors who come from just about everywhere. I miss being there since my 25 years as volunteer gave me one of the very best things I have experienced in Sweden.

Today, April 10, I want to note that Gary also has become a very fine writer and shares with me an interest in many different aspects of life here and in America where many troubling things are happening. He has become my number one best correspondent and writes replies to all of my Emails by placing paragraphs in colored text between mine. 

In other words, there on the printed page is a conversation that took place as if we were talking with each other but are not. We read here in Sweden that school kids no longer know how to write by hand and that leads them to being unable to express themselves by writing in their phones. When one writes by hand, one's mind functions differently and more slowly, often with good results.

I hope to add photos. The next Guardian Angel will most likely be Annika Frodi-Lundgren, Circus Annika. After Annika, I will close Part One of these blog posts by telling you about the people who help me here and also about my Red Cross colleagues who I miss so badly.

Wednesday, April 10, kl. 16:15 sun shining down on 3B.

Guardian Angel II

The light will soon be shining down on Guardian Angel II at this location. She is my daughter Julie. I use the phrase "shining down" because I have today googled the phrase Guardian Angel and found that the Old Testament has much to say about Guardian Angels. I too have much to say - in writing - but only one at a time. I write this on Saturday afternoon here at apartment 3B, 3:47 in the afternoon and will make writing II my Sunday project. 

Julie had planned her trip so carefully, flying Iceland Air via Keflavik as I have so many times. Then finding a home away from home where she would be in My Forest, Delsjöskogen just a short morning walk away from my apartment which is located at the lower northern end of the road that leads up to what I will call sister Annika's pond, the pond Annika runs around and swims in as often as possible.

Julie in my kitchen after her morning walk from the House In The Forest I will call MO.

Julie made that walk at least 6 times, choosing a different route each time so she as botanist-ecologist got to see different parts of the forest that I myself had run in so many times after moving to Göteborg in the spring of 2019. Most important to me, home alone at 3B was that we talked about our family history and our relationship at different times during more than 60 years. From that perspective, her visit became one of the very best I have ever experienced. I really got to know her, know facets of her life and abilities that she has developed during all the decades when only met sporadically for short times.

Julie Takes On IRS form 1040 SR - Guardian Angels, non biblical ones, are great to watch in action when they like a magician reach into their bag of tricks and relieve their person in focus of some until then worrisome almost impossible task. While I reclined on my couch Julie sat at my computer and went to work on the US Internal Revenue Service tax form for Seniors (SR). She talked to herself about every one of the countless steps that the IRS burdens its taxpayerss with and carried out a virtuoso performance filling everything induring Trial I. Trial II can wait a while.

She even did Ann's 1040 SR during one of her visits, hardly knew which one.

PAUSE 09:05

One of the most important things a Guardian Angel can do for a person who no longer walk solo is to take on the role of ledsagare Swedish for one who leads another to which I add  "and does so attentively and even with loving care. The man you see above had been running in two Swedish forests almost every day for more than 20 years and the same during every visit to Vermont in the summer.

To rather abruptly find that you not only cannot run but cannot even walk along is life-changing. It takes time for the video to be ready to play, hope it gets there. You will see Julie swinging along with me up at Delsjön. I sat down while she and Annika went down to the water. I photographed the horizontal fallen beech trees.

Julie and John drive north from Julie's house in Albany to the Adirondack Mountains and even in the forest close to their glamping site the American beech trees are diseased and falling down.

And, since I love remembering and reflecting on the days when I was so mobile that I could go up trails on my two favorite Green Mountains, Camels Hump and  Mount Mansfield while camping in a shelter on Mount Philo I will thank my two daughters for giving me those mountains. Julie led me to Mount Philo and Annika to Camels Hump. There is a bench on Mount Philo with a plate on which I thank them for that gift. And oddly, I suddenly remember that the first early signs of changes in my ability to walk revealed themselves during my final visit to Mount Philo. I tried to walk over the rock outcrops to the observation point, and I simply could not do that. So in 2018 something was going on.

Here is one of the most dramatic things I learned about Julie on her very last day here. She had discovered that there was something not quite right in version I of 1040 SR so she swung into action at this computer. I had already booked the taxi that would take her to the train station and never in a million years could I have sat down here and gone through the entire form changing, saving, printing, adjusting  as she did, cool as a cucumber. I kept quiet and just watched in awe. Time was running out and  with only 10 or 15 minutes remaining she printed the form, I signed it, and she put it in an envelope to take with her to America.

That is one of the many reasons that I have written above that this one of the very best times I got to spend with JAL in my entire life. Yes, even there something good had come as a result of something not so good. You can read about such things in Marilynne Robinson's newest book, Rereading Genesis that will turn up here next week.

Julie the sun is shining down on our forest and I miss you.

 

Document 413

 

Guardian Angels

Do you know someone other than me who had been physically and mentally active every day of his or her life who has become limited in one or the other of those domains?

   I see neighbors who have arrived “there” but I do not know any of them well. The only two people who reached such a point in their life that I knew well were my father and my mother. My father reached that point a decade before his wife did, and she assumed the role of his guardian angel He was in his early 70s. He just sat at home in Seekonk in the Baker living room where her presence was enough for him.

   After he died, she lived alone and turned her attention to assembling and making available her Memoir masterpiece clipping, pasting, writing then having the time and solitude to make that possible.

   But she did have at least two guardian angels, both cousins of mine, Joyce and Donnie. Joyce was always just a telephone call away and she saw to that daily – her initiative. Donnie lived nearby so he was able to visit her and make physical changes in her living space that were always helpful.

   I write on this subject because I am feeling uplifted by a fine visit by my number one Swedish guardian angel, Ann from Styrsö She was extraordinarily helpful today in arranging for me to have a root-canal procedure at a time when she can be my ledsagare a person who accompanies another, perhaps just to be with but who can also be a person who accompanies as a helper.

   Ordinarily when she visits 3B, she takes me on promenade up to but not into my forest. We are updating on the 13th of April. Ann came with a special mission: She would reshape my hair. She had her special scissors, sat me down, and clipped away. The high standing hair is gone, I am restored. Love the sound of hair being clipped.

But that was only the beginning: She is my Trash Lady, a position that must be filled for every home-bound person like me. Hallway restored, Recycling bins filled. Then we took a walk to the mailbox where i put a letter to Santander Bank where not a one of the telephone contact people could help me restore my account. Long letter off to Santander in Pennsylvania.

Then we walked down part of allen and I moved fast two poles flying. Felt great.

Back inside she needed help editing a story about herself for her university, GU. Getting rid of words is a special skill. She got rid of many - enought? We'll see. Then we were going to attach her Word file to an email to a Lundgren at GU. Computer or software went into refusal mode but in the end using all the tricks known to me, off it went.

Sometimes just helping one another - each other - is the most satisfying thing two people can do. We did that. 

A few daus ago I wanted t take a walk. The photo shows why I could not. On April 2, we had our biggest 2024 snowstorm. Even with Ann’s help taking a walk was not on the agenda. This was also the day after another Guardian Angel, Julie, had walked from her temporary home through the forest with suitcase to 3B. Might have been difficult.

 

I  posted this at my blog as number one in a series of Guardian Angels.

I have been modifying this one and will do the same as a way of showing all the good things that happen to me here and around 3B.

•  Yesterday, April 12, quite by chance, I found this photograph showing the cover of a book that i had misplaced, a book about experiences shared by an 85 year old scholar Sven-Eric Liedman. I had bought the book and read about his experience with becoming older - Om åldrandet On Aging. I ordered a new copy. I want to take another look since I share with him some very positive views about the experience of aging while one's mind is still working quite well.
• Ann is on her way back to Styrsö, no fast bus today so she will be in the slow lane to Saltholmen and the ferry.
• 
  

 

0n Saying Goodbye to Julie

This is no ordinary April Fool's Day here in Gothenburg, Sweden where I, recently turned 92 years of age, am writing. My daughter, Julie Ann Lundgren, is about to take off at Arlanda Airport north of Stockholm, Sweden - any minute now counting from 13:26 Summer Time in Sweden.

I am alone at home in my apartment on Iskällareliden (Ice cellar alley) in the Örgryte area of Gothenburg, Sweden. I write these words at this time because I am having a unique experience that leaves me reaching for words.

A few months ago, I found and read a memoir by a Swedish essayist who was able to express thoughts that only those of us who are on our way through decade 8 or even have entered decade 9 are there somewhere in our minds surfacing as if they need to be freed for reflection or revelation as spoken or written words.

The essayist was new to me, an intellectual in his 80s who was enjoying the experience of going through these years driven to write and to find satisfaction in doing so. I share with him the joy of writing and have found that doing so gives every single day content and meaning.

Here on the edge of vast forest, Delsjö skogen, I had been given daily lifts be being able to walk or run through my trees and then to sit there looking at my trees to see what questions arose in my mind. Yes, at first I just enjoy as does poet Mary Oliver being in touch with my botanical surroundings. But then questions arise just as they used to do when I as a geologist-naturalist sat down on a bedrock outcrop to see what stories it could tell me, always leading to questions about how these viewed works of art came into being and when and how.

I can no longer walk alone into my forest but I can watch what is happening at the edge and in the brook that winds its way down from the "mountain" in which the lakes that make up are held.

There will be no images today even though they are all tucked away somewhere in my mind but maybe another day.

I write in my blog because it provides a kinder home for words and images than does Facebook. I started writing because saying Goodbye was not so easy. Julie and a few weeks ago her brother gave me so much that I wanted to write about experiences that I share with Julie, life as a naturalist-scientist, she for plants and me for the earth, all of which endlessly evolve.

I add these lines on April 2 with snow falling to whiten the rhododendron leaves I see from my window. Julie's visit was one of the very best one-on-one experiences I have had in this life. She walked here each day from her "House In The Woods" choosing a different route each day, something she can do easily with good map, compass, and her history as a naturalist.

Now only did we get to talk about our past, present, and future but I also got to learn much about some fine qualities and abilities she had. Before I offer one example I note that you may think that to be an odd statement leading you to say:"You do not know your daughter after all these years" 

My reply is that each of us changes individually and many of the changes for the better are only observed over time, and each time (interval) is different. My example: Julie did my United States 1040 SR return for me once and then, on the morning of her departure from 3B realized that several things had to be changed. She sat here at this keyboard, calm as could be, doing one task after another as the time for the taxi to arrive got smaller and smaller. That did no phase her at all. She printed the final version and I signed, saved by her. Off she went leaving me feeling proud for who she is, what she can do, and her lifte time of helping others. Tack så  mycket Jules. Your loving pappa.

A Sunny Day in Sweden