Just like our vacation, which had both good (traveling, sightseeing, relaxing) and bad (John in the hospital) elements, this weekend was the same.
My mom called Thursday with the news that my Aunt Kathie had passed away. She was diagnosed at the end of March with an aggressive brain tumor. Even knowing the outcome, I still wasn’t expecting it to happen so fast. I guess if you have to go, fast is the way to do it, but UGH. Cancer sucks. The visitation was yesterday and the funeral today. I was very sad that there was no way I could be there, but I did call and talk to my uncle and one of my cousins. Yesterday, Karin and I lit candles in Lund Cathedral for her and had a quiet moment in remembrance.
The reason why the weekend wasn’t all sad/bad was because I had an unexpected visitor. One of my best friends from high school that I have seen since my wedding 19.5 years ago (!) sent me a message that she was going to be in Stockholm for meetings and had planned extra time in her schedule to be able to see me. After explaining that Stockholm was actually pretty far away, she was able, with the help of her travel agent, to switch things around and fly into Copenhagen instead.
We lived in the same base housing high-rise in Landstuhl, Germany. We were in The Messengers together, a non-denominational youth church choir on base, for 3 years. We sang on the bus, harmonizing on the way to choir practice. We went to each other’s birthday parties, we babysat together and performed together.
She arrived Saturday morning and she hasn’t changed a BIT. Well, except for the fact that her hair wasn’t still 70s-style. And except for the fact that she’s a high-powered COO for the National Association of Home Builders in Washington, D.C. It was SO fun to see her! We sat and talked and talked and talked. Anders made a great lunch (that delicious crayfish pasta dish) and then we sat and talked some more. Around 5:30 we headed to Malmö to take in a couple of hours of Malmöfestivalen, which is running all this week. We just walked around and looked at things, listened to some music, ate festival food (langos! churros! grilled salmon!), and people-watched.
At one point, while we were standing and waiting for Anders who was buying something at one of the booths, a horde of zombies went walking by. The funniest part was that in the middle of them was a woman dressed in a full-body banana suit, with just her zombie face and arms sticking out. Zombie banana! Haha! Then we headed home, went for a walk around the neighborhood, and stayed up late talking.
It was great to catch up, hear all about her family (I was good friends with her sister, too, and loved her parents, and my brother was best friends with her youngest brother) and husband and kids. It’s ridiculous that we haven’t seen each other for nearly 20 years. I sure hope it doesn’t go that long again until the next time. She gets to Europe once in awhile for work, so hopefully the next time she comes to Copenhagen or Stockholm we can meet up again. Or if I get to the States for work again, maybe. D.C. isn’t so far from Boston, after all!
Bedorah and Bizzeleth
Martin and Karin started school today, though for Martin it was only a 45-minute roll-call at 3 p.m. and for Karin it was a morning of orientation. She sounded pretty positive, and I think they are both secretly glad to be back in school, even if they will never admit it.