Hej då, Sverige

As always, the end comes sooner than you think. Today is our last day in Sweden. After 11 years living here, it’s a bittersweet feeling.

I have to admit shedding more than one tear at A.’s school send off yesterday, at which she received an award in the ‘Best Friend’ category (so richly deserved).

Maybe it was the plaintive, slightly out-of-tune rendition of some First Aid Kit song or other by the school choir, or the genuine jubilation that greeted every ‘Best Friend of the Year’ winner (there were many) but I guess that’s when it hit me: we’re leaving.

So many opportunities chased, some never caught and others delusional, but we also have a tremendous opportunity now to reshape our lives, for the time being at least, in Paris.

At a time when so many people close by have been forced to leave their homes with no final destination in view, we are privileged to be able to decide the when and the where and the how.

As for the why, K. and I both woke up this morning wondering, ‘What the f’#& are we doing?’ but I suspect the answer may well be in the doing itself. If not, there will always be a Plan B to formulate.

Meanwhile, in the bedlam of the final weeks, days and hours, there has been no time to say goodbye to the many people who have shared a part of their lives with us here and I am sorry about that but then again, if you don’t say goodbye, perhaps you never really leave after all.

Hej då, Sverige.

Vi ses snart igen.