It was a nostalgic journey to rediscover my family roots, but it was also great fun and reminded me how much I missed this beautiful land
My last visit had been in 2008, with my mother. We stayed in the tiny cottage that used to belong to our extended family and is now shared by my cousins. I had never been there on my own. This time, I didn’t recognise the narrow track through the forest that seemed to lead to a dead end. I pushed on through the mass of vegetation and suddenly found myself in a clearing. I passed the mail boxes where our cousins used to wait for us and wave as we approached.
I spent six days and six nights at the cottage. I wandered through the forest where I used to make camps with my nextdoor neighbour, Cecilia. I breathed in the earthy tang of the moss and pine cones as if it would send fresh blood pumping through my heart. I drove to the lake we used to swim in and to the beach where we rescued blue jellyfish from the sea. I had forgotten the smell of the long grass in the dunes and the soft pink of the wild roses scattered at the beach’s edge.
I went to the first ever Ikea, the one we went to every summer, which is now a museum. I stayed with my aunt in Växjö and went to the, the museum that tells the story of the fifth of the Swedish population that, between 1830 and 1930, fled poverty and hunger in hope of a better life in the US. In my aunt’s kitchen, I saw the wooden chest my great-grandmother took on the boat to America. She changed her mind and came back.
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