{"id":295,"date":"2003-12-02T02:00:18","date_gmt":"2003-12-02T09:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stefangeens.com\/?p=295"},"modified":"2003-12-02T02:00:18","modified_gmt":"2003-12-02T09:00:18","slug":"the-letter-part-3-margaretha-writes-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/2003\/12\/the-letter-part-3-margaretha-writes-back\/","title":{"rendered":"The Letter, part 3: Margaretha writes back"},"content":{"rendered":"

[If you haven’t yet read The Letter<\/em>, parts one<\/a> and two<\/a>, please do so first. This post won’t make any sense otherwise]<\/p>\n

Margaretha wrote back this afternoon. I think it is time to take a backseat and let the story tell itself…<\/p>\n

After our conversation my son absolutely wanted to have a look at the letter so we checked it out yesterday already. Today at work I told several colleagues and also my daughter. Everyone thinks it’s a great story and wants to hear more.
 
I grew up in Halmstad and had just graduated from high school in 1970, after which I found work at the Swedish Central bank in Stockholm. In the spring of 1970 I was going out with Bengt, who that year began his military service at P2, which was an armoured regiment in H\u00e4ssleholm. Bengt came to visit me in Stockholm, but I had made new friends and so I broke up with him when he visited. I met Bengt one more time during the Christmas holidays that year, but since then we have not been in touch.
 
I don’t remember the letter, but it is correctly addressed to me so I could well have had it. In the autumn of that year I moved to Vasastan. The theory about the bookmark may well be right, but I do not remember the letter, alas.
 
In 1976 I married Rolf, with whom I have two children — Monika, who is 22 and studying to become a journalist, and Olof, 18 and in high school. We have lived most in Stockholm, but also some time in Luxembourg and Gothenburg. I work as an economist at a waste management firm called S—.<\/span>Efter ditt samtal ig\u00e5r ville absolut min son titta p\u00e5 brevet s\u00e5 vi gick in redan ig\u00e5r. Idag har jag ber\u00e4ttat om det f\u00f6r flera arbetskamrater och \u00e4ven f\u00f6r min dotter. Alla tycker det \u00e4r en fantastisk historia och vill g\u00e4rna h\u00f6ra mer.<\/p>\n

Jag v\u00e4xte upp i Halmstad<\/a> och hade tagit studenten 1970, d\u00e4refter fick jag arbete p\u00e5 Sveriges Riksbank<\/a> i Stockholm. Under v\u00e5ren-70 hade jag s\u00e4llskap med Bengt som det \u00e5ret p\u00e5b\u00f6rjade sin milit\u00e4rtj\u00e4nstg\u00f6ring p\u00e5 P2 som var ett pansarf\u00f6rband<\/a> i H\u00e4ssleholm<\/a>. Bengt bes\u00f6kte mig i Stockholm, men jag hade f\u00e5tt nya v\u00e4nner och hade v\u00e4ldigt roligt s\u00e5 jag gjorde slut med Bengt vid hans bes\u00f6k. Jag tr\u00e4ffade Bengt ytterligare en g\u00e5ng under julhelgen det \u00e5ret, men sedan har vi inte haft n\u00e5gon kontakt.<\/p>\n

Jag minns inte brevet, men det var r\u00e4tt adresserat s\u00e5 jag kan ha haft det. P\u00e5 h\u00f6sten det \u00e5ret flyttade jag till Vasastan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Teorin om bokm\u00e4rke kan st\u00e4mma men jag minns inte brevet, tyv\u00e4rr.<\/p>\n

1976 gifte jag mig med Rolf som jag f\u00e5tt tv\u00e5 barn med Monika som \u00e4r 22 \u00e5r och utbildar sig till journalist och Olof som \u00e4r 18 \u00e5r och g\u00e5r p\u00e5 gymnasiet. Vi har bott mest i Stockholm, men \u00e4ven en tid i Luxemburg och i G\u00f6teborg. Jag arbetar som ekonom i ett f\u00f6retag i sopbranschen som heter S—.<\/p>\n

Margareta, who signs her name without an h, goes on to mention that she’s found a Bengt M— (the letter didn’t contain his last name) living outside of Halmstad. And shall we contact him?<\/p>\n

This story isn’t over yet, in other words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[If you haven’t yet read The Letter, parts one and two, please do so first. This post won’t make any sense otherwise] Margaretha wrote back this afternoon. I think it is time to take a backseat and let the story … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-sweden","category-the-letter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7eNhC-4L","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}