You’ve seen the pics of my host family. And my sister Margita is still holding pics of the church and graveyard hostage. I’ll get them and post at some point! But here are some of the folks that have made this such a wonderful trip! 
Lorraine has been my friend since we discovered one another in class at Brogårdsskolan 40 years ago. She’s a sculptor. She met her partner Kjell (painter) in 1972 (I probably met him not long after.) They have two boys Nicklas 25 and åke (couldn’t make it capitalize!) 22. Lorraine’s sister Dorothy is now a vet in a town called Arvika. She has been one of Sweden’s better known horse vets, but has gone back to small animals while she and her husband Kent raise their children, Axel and Sigrid. Lorraine and Dorothy’s brother Erik lives in the states. Here’s Dorothy at the lake on a camping trip with Lorraine and the two of them outside the candy cane shop factory.
In 2007, I came over in November because Erik, Lorraine and Dorothy’s mom died. Liz had been an amazing addition to my life. Wherever I lived, she often came to stay, so lots of people got to meet her. They set her stone in 2008. She’s lying in a church yard close to the farm where she grew up, looking out over the lake.
There’s something wonderfully satisfying about the fact that her stone is in a graveyard where her family has been buried for hundreds of years.
And then of course there are the friends of friends: Here are we, Kjell and I, (more fika!) with Gunvor, a wildly talented film artist and Yana, who is married to a wonderful painter. She’s now filling her retirement with travel. St. Petersburg next!
This picture is in Lorraine’s backyard. She’s a fairly spectacular gardener!
