We sat an outdoor platform in Nassjo, Sweden, awaiting the train that would take us to Arlanda Airport in Stockholm for our return flight to Texas. I had attended a professional conference there, and my wife had explored the city more thoroughly than my time allowed. Afterwards, we explored Scandinavia, wandering to Gothenburg, Copenhagen, and to my great-grandparents birthplaces in Smaland in Central Sweden. The morning train from Växjö to Nassjo had lasted about an hour, and we were enjoying the late summer afternoon, only to be interrupted by a barrage of text messages.
“You should call or text someone about your house; horrible flooding and people evacuating” The texts were variations on that theme. My brother returned my call with news that “things didn’t look good.” Anxiety prevailed for 24 hours. It was worse than we feared, damage that 18 inches of standing water would produce; outdoor furniture washed downstream, never to be seen; damaged photographs and pictures stored in closets, never to be hung; papers in our study drawers, illegible by mud stains.