Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Cellar

We, my children and I are still in Sweden. Lucia just happened yesterday and I thought people would be interested in hearing about it. But there is another reason I was so happy to diverge from our daily life in Viken.

My mother. She still had problems with me. She loved the children and she was a wonderful grandmother. With me it was another story. I will give you one example and then try to forget it.

Sunday we had dinner, all six of us. And I tried to have a Sunday dinner like the ones we had when I was growing up. I bought a beautiful veal roast. With that we had boiled potatoes and string-beans. I forget what we had for dessert.

An aside before I go on. There was no running water in the kitchen. There was no refrigerator.

We ate and all went well. I had hot water ready for washing dishes and after the children had cleared the table I told them they could go out and play, while I washed the dishes. Mother said she was going to visit a friend. Before I could wash the dishes I had to decide how to preserve the leftovers. I decided to cover the serving dishes with foil and to put them down in the cellar. We had enough for a good supper the following day. When I opened the cellar door, I thought there were too many spider-webs down there.

Well, next evening when I went to get our leftovers, the cellar door was nailed shut. That meant the food would sit there and rot and the serving dishes were lost for us for the duration. It wasn't just a little brad used by my mother, those were huge nails pounded in totally. The people who bought the house many years later must have been surprised when they tore the kitchen down to modernize it. Two beautiful dishes with green stuff growing under the foil. There was some sort of adventure like this for me on a daily basis.

I will try to tell you about the fun times we had.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why on earth did she nail the cellar door shut? (I'm assuming it was your mother...)

Sandra @ The Memory Workshop said...

That is just wierd.

I'm looking forward to more exciting adventures with you and your family!

Ter-o-fla said...

What a bizzare thing to do!
I am flabergasted. :o
I really wonder what she thought she would accomplish by doing that.
How very strange.
Good for you, though, for keeping on and being so good to your own children; for not carrying on in the same way.

Haphazardkat said...

Almost makes you wonder what she was hiding in the cellar???
Very strange!!
I'm so proud of your granddaughter for her new published "Daily Coyote" book! I just finished reading it. Fantastic job! :)

Kat
Vancouver, WA

Barbara said...

Maybe she did that every winter and didn't know, or didn't remember, that you had put the food there. Is that possible?
Barbara

Emiana said...

How bizarre. Why? She partook in the dinner too, right? Wouldn't she want left overs? Did she feel you were sneaking in the cellar? Was she hiding something? Did you ever ask her about this?

Unknown said...

Good way to work through it dear Svensto! Onto the "paper" out of the mind. :) Well done. So enjoying the stories, even the sadder ones. They all make up the fabric of your very rich life.

Anonymous said...

I am just amazed at what you went through with your mother, you are such a brave person. She sounds like she had a mental illness. Did you have a good relationship with your father?