Monday, Jan. 27 (Part II)

I was happy to see a new candle on Arne's grave when I stopped at the cemetary in the afternoon. It had been burning since yesterday, I think, since it was almost burned down as far as the candle I had relighted. My guess is that it was Annette, our former neighbor, who put it there, and I will ask her about it when she comes to dinner on Wednesday. It's just nice to know that there are others besides Nurse Grethe and I who are remembering Arne here in Copenhagen and making the special effort to come to his grave site.

Old Grethe was Arne's oldest and closest friend. She's now 82 and still looks as if she is in her 60's. I've always liked her apartment becase of the paintings. Her husband was a painter, and she has every bit of the wall area from floor to ceiling covered with paintings done by him and their friends. Most of them were probably done in the 1930's and 1940's. I've spent many hours over the years looking at all the artwork. One of my favorite paintings has always been the one that shows the back side of an apartment building; inside each window can be observed the daily lives of the people living in the building.

I spent most of the day with Old Grethe, arriving at 2:00 p.m. and leaving around 9:00. Our visits these days are always similar and very enjoyable. We reminisce about the past--people we have known, events we have shared, etc. We talk about current events--politics, world disasters, things that have happened in our personal lives, etc. And we have a traditional dinner that Grethe prepares--frikedeller (meatballs made with ground pork tenerloin and beef combined in equal parts), boiled new potatoes, and parsley sauce (white sauce with chopped parsley added to it). It's a very traditional Danish meal, and Grethe's frikedeller are among the best.

I was sorry today to see that time is taking its toll on Old Grethe, my friend. She suffers from macular degeneration and can see only out of the sides of her eyes when using magnification (including a giant magnifying screen placed in front of her TV). And, also due to her eyesight problems, she no longer makes her homemade chocolate chip cookies she learned to make on her trip to Texas in the mid-1980's. But we made the most of the evening, and I promised to try to see her again before I leave Copenhagen.

Tuesday, Dec. 28 (Part I)

I finished reading the novel I recently started this morning. I just stayed in bed until 11:30 and read all morning. What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt was rather different and interesting. It was a mystery, multiple love stories, the story of a child without conscience, etc. Grethe had given it to me for my birthday this summer. Now I will leave it here for her to read.

Tonight, Grethe and I will visit Lotte, a nurse who is a friend of hers. There is a funny story about live that has occured since I met Lotte for the first time this summer. To understand, I must go back to tell you about the Danish Consul in Calgary. He and his wife took good care of me this summer after Arne's death and became friends. They told me about his childhood home in Virum which they had visited in the past year. Friends of theirs live there. The Consul and his wife had planned to visit me in September of this year, but they postponed their trip, because the friends from Virum had decided to make a trip to Calgary then. I guess during their visit, they heard the story from the Consul about the American and the Dane who had been there--about how they had rescued me and kept me safe and comfortable as I dealt with the problems of Arne's death. Well, the Consul got an e-mail this winter from the friends in Virum describing a coinsidence. They had gone into Copenhagen to visit a cousin of theirs. They told her about their trip to Calgary. Sometime in the evening, they told about hearing about an American and a Dane who had been traveling when the Dane died and that their friends in Calgary had helped them through the situation. The cousin spoke up and said, "That must have been Randy and Arne." Their cousin they were speaking to and who knew us is Lotte who I will see tonight. Isn't it a small world?!!