..so quiet…

The morning is here, and it is So quiet! It is so lovely, and it is for sure the best time of the day. Quiet and nice and perfect for me who needs to focus on my thesis. Jer is sleeping and I am sitting in the “dark” in absolute silence and it works! I can concentrate in the darkness and in absolute silence. I am a night owl, awake when no one else is. So nice, even though I love to interact with people – silence is the best.

26 May 2009

Why so early?

It is something strange going on in nature. First, it is raining like crazy here in Gothenburg and the birds should not sing when it is raining! Secondly, it is just 02.30 so the birds should not be awake anyway, it is far to early for them to wake up now! Thirdly, because the birds are my call to go to bed, i better not (aswell) break the ritual as i have done these last weeks. It is just to bad they are so early today cuz i was on a roll with my thesis, but as soon as they start singing – my eyes start to get very heavy. Hence, i will join the club of sleep.

18 May 2009

…the funeral

A sad day. The funeral of nanna Grace held the 11th of May at Paola was interesting in an anthropological view point. Luckily for me, the whole ceremony was in Maltese and maybe it is weird to say that, but the people whom have seen me cry knows that i cannot stop and in this case i was there as a support, so i needed to be strong. What did i notice on this funeral rite? First, i did not want to go into the morgue so i cannot explain what happened there, but i was told that the coffin was open and the ones that wanted to see nanna Grace for the last time, was allowed to do this. Afterwords, we followed the hearse and i was so impressed that all the cars on the road, left space for the hearse and us following. It was like everybody gave their sympathy and just slowed down and let us pass in a quiet atmosphere. When we finally came to the church, everybody was inside, the family held the flower arrangements in the hands and the funeral guys carried the coffin into the middle of the church, the altar. While waiting for the church to fill a little bit more, the men in the family went in to the priests and decided about their speeches, from the Bible. Thereafter the ceremony started, it was a lot of praying and doing the cross movement and making the sign of the cross on the head, the lips and the heart (you can imagine i did not follow any of these acts). After two speeches, one including Jer reading some paragraphs and the priest some in between which was a very nice touch to the ceremony, the picture cards of nanna Grace was handed out (a typical Maltese tradition i believe, function as a memory of the funeral). The coffin was after that carried down to the hearse, the family with the flowers following first and then the rest of the guests. Everybody met outside by the cars and gave their condolences to the family. After that the guest went home and the family and close friends went with the cars to the cemetery. At the cemetery, the priest said some words while the cemetery guys made the grave ready to be filled once again. The graves are usually family graves and in this grave that would be nanna graces last location, was already filled with nannu Leli – so what they had done was taking out nannu Lelis bones from his coffin and washed them and put them in a plastic box which fitted next to  nanna Graces coffin. The cemetery guys sealed the coffin with limestones slabs( which will be sealed off for 2 years for proper deterioration of the body), they finally lifted the marble slab above and the ritual was over. The marble slabs will soon be decorated with a picture of nanna grace as so is the custom in Malta.

15 May 2009

i had a plan and then…

…this happened. I have locked me inside for days, i got some fever and then Jer got the call. 18 hours later we are on our way to malta. Im very tired right now, one because im not use to do so much everyday (i mean running between train stations and up and down on trains) and then i have been travelling for 12 hours. I am not following my study plan but, which i realize i get so much more by braking it. Now there is a funeral tomorrow, over here in the mediterranean funerals happen fast, they do not freeze down the deceased as we do in sweden. And funerals are funerals, there is nothing happy about them, and they differ so much between every culture. It is going to be interesting to see tomorrow how a maltese funeral is held. The only think i know about the rtual is that we tomorrow morning at 7.15 will be picked up in a car, we drive to the hospital Mater Dei, say good bye in the room over there (if we want) and then take the coffin to the car. After that everybody meets up out side the hospital in their cars and we drive together to the church and to the ceremony. After that will we the closest ones go with the coffin to the graveyard and there have another small ceremony.

We will see what will happen, but as i started of with in this blogg. My study plan is broken but I am glad to help my loved one in the journey of sorrow – it is not easy, but we need to have someone next to us, just to have someone next to us! I did this journey ones by myself, and it is hard, very hard!

I will manage with my studies somehow, anyway, everything takes its time!

10 May 2009