When discovering a diary, it is like stepping into someone’s home without knowing anything about the family. There are names mentioned, but it is not like a novel where the author will provide you with character descriptions. And at the time of Augusta’s diary, there were no photographs. Fortunately, there is a lot of recorded genealogy; dates and places of birth, marriage, and death. And of […]
My plan for today was to go Christmas shopping in Stockholm. Getting off the commuter train at the Central Station, I followed the crowd of early commuters through the hallways that lead to the subway escalators. But instead of going down another floor, I took the elevator up to the new station exit at Klarabergsgatan. I was met by the low, bright December sun blinding […]
It started with a diary. When I was 14, my dad gave me a moleskin notebook and suggested I should start keeping a diary. I was flattered and at the same time curious. Why did he think I should chronicle my mundane teenage life? Years later, I found out that both his mother and her grandmother kept diaries. My great-great-grandmother (my father’s mother’s mother’s mother) […]