By Peter Solis Nery
VÄSTERÅS — I have been to Sweden three times now. The first one was a quick trip to check out the Nobel Prize Museum and the capital city of Stockholm in 2017. The second was an extended visit to meet friends in 2022, right after the pandemic: a chef hosted me for a few days in Stockholm, and an interracial family hosted me for about a week in Västerås before I went on to hunt the aurora borealis in the Swedish Lapland of Kiruna and Abisko.
Do I have the time to attend a 25th wedding anniversary in Västerås in 2024? I was in the UK when I got the invite, but I knew I was going to be in France or Italy around the time of the wedding. Can I quickly visit Sweden?
At the silver wedding ceremony of my friends Anders and Alexa Larsson, witnessed by their adult children Alexander and Angelica, I also met my elementary classmate Kathleen Pichay and her son Marrius (from the UK); and of course, Alexa’s sisters Maria Rosea and Liza Marie (the Baquianos from Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo). The celebrating couple was cheered on by family and friends from the Philippines, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, and all around Sweden.
Two days after the wedding, most of us went back to the same Vår Frus Katolska Kyrka—Our Lady Catholic Church in Västerås—to attend the high mass with Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, and Sweden’s first ever Swedish (and Scandinavian) cardinal, as we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the parish.
My knowledge of Scandinavian languages is no good, but my translator said that His Eminence, in his sermon in Swedish, extolled the role of the family and the Virgin Mary in keeping the faith in this new century; and emphasized the role of the Catholic faithful in our modern, most challenging times.
I thought it was pretty amazing that my friends’ silver wedding ceremony on a Thursday (Sept 5) was aligned with the golden anniversary of the parish on Saturday (Sept 7), and the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Sunday (Sept 8). I felt lucky to be there.
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Peter Solis Nery is a multi-awarded Filipino poet, fictionist, filmmaker and playwright who divides his time living in the Philippines and traveling around the world. He is a Palanca Awards Hall of Famer, and the first Filipino author invited to the Sharjah International Book Fair in the United Arab Emirates.
