alla helgon
In Borås for the weekend. Today is Alla helgons dag (All Saints' Day). In Sweden everyone goes to the cemetery and lights candles on the graves, and when it gets dark around half past four the whole cemetery is full of little lights. It's the most beautiful thing we do and nobody talks about it.
We lit one for Mormor, my grandmother. She died two years ago.
At home Mamma scrolled through the photos of my drawings on my phone. She stopped at #9 and said "you look like Mormor in that one." I don't see it. Maybe around the eyes.
Then she told me a story I didn't know. When I was three I used to talk to the girl in the hall mirror. I called her Avla. If Mamma said "that's you, silly" I got furious and said no, Avla lives on the other side. I stopped when I was about four.
Avla. It's just my name backwards. We both laughed.