Saturday 17 August 2002

Pic of the day: Clouds descend once again over my childhood home. (Archive photo from my latest trip there.)

Not so cheerful news

I don't know what to think about this. Today my brother called me and asked if I had heard from our father. It seems he has made the trip to the South Coast of Norway here, to participate in an event and visit friends and family. After a few days he stopped calling home, and it seems none of us kids have heard from him in nearly a week. Now, in truth we are not a very communicative family. It is months between each time I call or send an e-mail. The others are in touch more frequently, but still less than most families that are still on goods terms. But our father is over 70 years old, and senses and skills are slowly getting blunted. So it is reasonable if people worry more about him. Besides, he lives in the same house as my brother and family, so they are used to seeing him every day.

The farm that our father grew up on is deserted, but the houses are still well kept. One possibility is he has stopped there. Well, that's the kind of thing I might have done in his place. But it isn't a place where you can get help if anything happens. Not even mobile phones work that far out in the wilderness.

But anyway, there isn't really anything I can do about it, that isn't already being done by others. So I am not even going to try. Long distance worry hasn't a lot of a well documented positive effects.

Possibly I'm going to hear from someone when something has been found out. Until then, I intend to go on with my own life, such as it is.