Tag Archives: britta

Time passes by

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There are so many balls that I have figuratively dropped these past several weeks, it’s disgusting. I am trying to make up for it or just get over it with not much success.

Here’s to new beginnings, then. My oldest nephew, Nils, married his fiance, Emily, this past Saturday. (Some photos of the wedding are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_oberg/sets/72157594287976715/) We drove down from the Chicago area to attend the outdoor wedding held on the bank of a local river in the town where I grew up. It was late afternoon, the sun was shining, and the temperature was nice and warm. It was a great experience and we are thrilled for this new beginning for Nils and Emily. We were able to see many friends and acquaintences whom we haven’t seen for quite a while, so that was an added bonus. Just as happened at my niece, Britta’s, wedding a year and a half ago, I had this sense while watching the whole event unfold that I was a modern day Rip Van Winkle who had just woken up out of some sort of dream to find that the whole world had drastically changed while he was asleep. I found it hard to come to terms with the fact that this person whom I have known since birth is now a married man, and that means that I am no longer as young as I once was. My older brothers and sisters are approaching middle age, and so am I. My mother may someday soon become a great-grandmother.

This sense of unreality was compounded by a chance encounter this weekend. I met a former elementary/junior high/high school classmate who was working at the local gas station and whom I hadn’t seen since graduation more than twenty years ago. My, how time changes people! It took me a few minutes to realize who she was. And she didn’t recognize me at first, either, so I introduced myself. In our brief conversation I learned that she has a daughter who is now a junior in high school; that she had been married to a military guy and had lived in such faraway places as Fairbanks, Alaska, and Washington State. How or why did she end up coming back to her hometown, I wondered? I didn’t have a chance to ask.

Time passes by so quickly. I blink, and my own children are no longer babies or toddlers or a young adult but instead are young boys, a little lady, and a high shool aged young man. More and more, I think God is reminding me of what really matters most: relationships. This was recently made even more obvious to me by the sudden death of Steve Irwin, the “Crocodile Hunter,” in a freak accident. Like millions of other people around the world, I did not know this man personally at all yet I felt a sense of real connection with him and his young family through watching his shows on TV. I am sure that Steve Irwin was no saint yet to me, he was a wildlife hero. I admired him for many reasons but especially for his neverending enthusiasm and zest for life, and his championing of wildlife conservation. I mourn him and I have shed tears for his wife and his two little kids who clearly meant the world to him. Call me crazy or overly sentimental or apply some other negative epithet but yes, I cried when I heard the unbelievable news.

I ask you to take time to assess your own life. What motivates you? Where do you put your energies, your hopes and dreams? I hope your focus is not on materialistic things, ambitions, careers, and honors, which are like fool’s gold. Instead, seek after what is true, what is real, what is relational. Seek, and you will find the One who created relationships and who made you for relationship: God.

A wedding weekend

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This past weekend was spent with my side of the family. My eldest niece, Britta, was married on Monday to Roger. The marriage ceremony was held underneath the spreading branches of the huge old oak tree in front of her parent’s house, and it was a beautiful setting. The weather was sunny and warm and couldn’t have been better. About 100 or so people were present, many from Great Britain and elsewhere (Roger is from Great Britain). Some photos by my brother, Jeff, are available here. It is hard to believe that Britta is all grown up and now married. I saw a lot of people at the wedding whom I hadn’t seen in years and it gave me a sort of Rip Van Winkle kind of feeling, like I had been in a time warp and had just woken up to see that everyone had grown up or gotten a lot older while I was asleep.

Some family photos

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My brother, Dan, digitized many family photos a while ago. I’ve chosen a few to show here.

Below is a photo of all of my family members on the afternoon of our wedding in January 2000, including my six brothers and sisters and almost all of my nieces and nephews and one of my cousins. This is the last photo taken that includes all of my siblings and parents. My sister, Becky, is married and lives in New Zealand, so it is very unusual to have her in a recent family photo. And then my father died almost exactly two years after this photo was taken.

First row from left to right: Dan (brother), Ben (nephew), Keegan (son), Pelle (nephew), and Nils (nephew); Second row: Lars (nephew), my mother with Kerstin (niece) in her lap, my father with Bjorn (nephew) in his lap, and Sam (nephew from New Zealand). Third row: Debbie (sister), Bradley (cousin), Linda (sister-in-law), Jeff (brother), Jocelyn (niece), Tim (brother), Petra (sister-in-law), Kevin (brother), Britta (niece), me, Michele, Becky (sister from New Zealand).

Here is a photo of my mother and father on their wedding day in September 1958:

This photo is of Grandma McCallum, my mother’s mother. I was really close to her and miss her even to this day. This is the last photo taken of her not long before her death in October 1982. The baby in the stroller is Nils, my oldest nephew:

Below is a late photo of Grandpa and Grandma McCallum, the only grandparents I ever knew (my paternal grandparents both died before I was old enough to remember them):

I like this photo of all of us kids (except Donny, my parents’ third child, who died of unknown causes at 18 months of age). Left to right: Dan (#6 and twin to Debbie), Kevin (#1), me (#8) in Kevin’s lap, Tim (#2) with Debbie (#7 and twin to Dan) on his lap, Jeff (#4), and Becky (#5). At this point we still lived in Nebraska:

My Kiwi brother-in-law, Martin (top), along with some friends, pretending to do a Maori war dance called the “haka,” on a beautiful beach on the North Island:

Finally, here I am for my third birthday:

Adventure to Carmel

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We just got back from our trip to the neurologist in Carmel (a northern suburb of Indianapolis). It was quite an “adventure.” We left the house in plenty of time but with an almost empty tank of gas and no real clue as to the exact location of the doctor’s office. The appointment was scheduled for 10a but we had arranged to meet my mother and Britta, my eldest niece, between 9:30a and 9:45a so that they could take the kids to a park while we were at the doctor’s office.

We got to the general vicinity in plenty of time but for the life of us could not locate the doctor’s office. We spent 40 minutes driving around looking for it and tried several times to reach the office by cell phone. There was a constant busy signal so we couldn’t get through. This whole time, the van was driving on fumes and I was anxious that we would be stuck by the side of the road somewhere. Plus, we were worried about my mother and Britta waiting for us, wondering where we were.

Sigh. Such is our life. We were quite stressed out by the time we were found by Britta, who guided us to the right location. We were told by the attendant that since we were a half hour late for our appointment, the doctor could only see Michele for a short time.

In spite of apprehension about going to all this trouble for nothing, we were pleased with the doctor’s visit. She seems to be genuinely concerned about Michele’s condition and asked lots of questions and did a quick examination.

One mystery that she cleared up for us related to our understanding from Michele’s regular doctor’s receptionist that the MRI showed nothing. Fact is, it confirmed what the CT scan showed, which was described as a dark or obscure area in Michele’s brain. I have no idea why we were told that the MRI showed nothing. The neurologist believes it is a cyst or dead area that Michele may have had since birth or at least, for a long time. She doesn’t feel it is dangerous. She didn’t rule out the possibility that it may be growing and may play a part, but she thinks it’s doubtful. It is located in the basal ganglia on the right side of Michele’s brain. She will monitor it over time.

The neurologist ordered some more blood tests and also scheduled a 48-hour in hospital test that is basically an EEG given over a long period of time, including during her sleep. She also scheduled Michele to be seen by a neuropsychologist since Michele mentioned some memory problems as one of the symptoms she’s experiencing. This person will help determine which area of the brain might be affected.

The upshot is that we do not have any significant answers yet, but we weren’t expecting to have any. The doctor told us that Michele’s symptoms could be caused by a wide variety of things, even something as weird as a particular kind of virus or an undiagnosed strep infection. We just have to wait and see what these further tests will tell us.

After the doctor visit, we met up again with my mother and Britta and went to a nearby park to have a picnic lunch. It was in a beautiful location overlooking a little stream in a wooded area. Britta is getting ready for her upcoming wedding in about a month. It was great to see them.

Niece engaged

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Last week we heard the good news that my niece, Britta, got engaged. Her fiancé’s name is Roger, and he comes from England. They plan to get married next May (2005) and afterward, they will settle down here in the U.S., at least for a few years. Britta is my oldest niece and the first of my many nieces and nephews to get engaged, so this is quite exciting!

A little monster

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“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’” Matthew 15:7-8. Today is a rather gloomy day but there is lots to be done around the house in view of my mother and my niece, Britta, coming on Sunday. I’m just getting over a chest cold of some sort, and so is Tristan. Speaking of Tristan, some sort of switch has been flipped and he has been a little monster these past few days. No kidding! Where is the sweet-tempered, happy child he used to be?! Surely the terrible twos hasn’t struck early? I sure hope not.