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aUTHor :jEnny-yUE zHEng
PHoTograPHEr: EMil joHanSSon
illUSTraTionS: SaraH joHanSSon
Rut Warborg grew up on Resö, an island off the Swedish
West Coast. When Rut was seventeen, she moved to Gothenburg
where she first worked as a housekeeper before she
started her training to become a nurse. last year she received
a telegram from the King of Sweden, who congratulated
her on her 100th birthday. Today 101-year-old rut still has
vivid childhood memories and remembers Christmas as a
very special holiday.
– I grew up on Resö with three siblings, and our family’s
main source of nut rition
was boiled fish. Very few
people thought about frying
fish back then, but oil
and butter was so scarce
that we would not have had
enough grease for frying
anyway. We didn’t have
everything, but at least we
never starved. We had meat
on Sundays, and sometimes
there were leftovers
to be
had on Mondays
as well.
Rut remembers
Christmas as a
very important
holiday for her
family. Her mother
always decorated
their
house in preparation
for the cele brations.
On Christmas Eve they
would eat porridge and the
children received Christmas
gifts.
– Usually my father or older
sister would dress up as
Father Christmas, and the
rest of us laughed so hard
when our father turned up, because he was never able to
conceal his accent.
Resö had its own church and a school
building, but the priest only came over
from the mainland every fortnight.
– Of course, he always came during
Christmas but not necessarily
on Christmas Eve.
Sometimes he came on Christmas
day instead. We didn’t have
a doctor on the island either.
Whenever someone needed medical
attention, they would send for
a doctor from the mainland. When
he came, he would always ask everyone
else if they were feeling unwell and urge
them to take the opportunity to have a check-up.
Back in the days when
there was no electricity on
Resö, people used kerosene
lamps, but kerosene was
rationed and Rut recalls
that her mother damaged
her eye-sight from sewing
in dim light. Rut also remembers
the two World
Wars. Even though the war
never came to Sweden, she
remembers hearing cannons,
which reminded the
islanders that a war was
being fought not far from
their doorstep.
– My mother always took
the celebration of Christmas
very seriously. She
was always concerned
about having
a ceremonious
Christmas.
Somehow she
always managed
to get hold of
a piece of ham,
even in wartime.
She did a lot of
sewing, so maybe
that was how she
managed to trade
for it.