She is gone

My mother died today, Sunday, June 21, at the age of 88 years, 6 months and 14 days.
Rest in peace, Dina!

Dina 2 1/2 years old in 1923

Dina 19 years old, in the spring of 1940

Dina 27 years old early in 1948 a few months before she married my father.

Dina surrounded by her grandchildren Lukas, Ian and Markus in 2005

This is the last picture of her at acceptable health in January 2009

Changes

My mom, Dina, is seriously ill and hospitalised since the end of April this year. The photo above is 1 1/2 year old and taken the day she turned 87.
She has struggled with cancer since 1993, it started with cancer in the bladder and she went through a bladder removal with a urostomy in 1996, after that they have removed melanomas from her forehead and she got her right breast removed in 2006.
The last six months her health has deteriorated and the results from several tests show that a lot of indicators for cancer are severely elevated but she denied any kind of agressive treatment, no operations, no drugs, no nothing at this stage. She just want to leave this life in peace and takes only pain killing shots. She is fading away day by day.
Her house out in the archipelago is empty and cold now and it gives me an odd feeling to think about that she won't go back there anymore.

Bruce Springsteen rocked Tampere

Yes he did!
We left from here around noon yesterday for 2h45min drive to the city of Tampere and got to the venue about 1 1/2 h before the gates opened and the security check started.
There were approx 1500 people in the line in front of us so we did not really expect to get some really good spots this year but at last we found ourselves togeteher with Steve, a guy from Ireland we bumped into when fighting for a good spot.


Steve and me waiting in great anticipation...

When the show was about to start we took advantage of the sudden chaos of people sitting and then standing up to advance some few steps and ended up just some few feet from the fence to the right of the center of the stage more or less in front of Soozie.


In this picture you may see how close we got. Why do I get this "Sally Simpson" feeling here...?

Well the show was like an eruption of energy and we left Tampere with our ears ringing and legs hurting of 7 hours af walking, standing and jumping around. regarding the tinnitus it wasn't so much because of the sound level of the music, in front of the stage the PA:s are blasting away over your head but my ears was ringing because I was caught in the middle of a group of ladies in their mid forties and some teenage girls who were screaming their lungs out... :)
Sorry Ingela, no offence!




Badlands
Radio Nowhere
Prove It All Night
Outlaw Pete
Out in the Street
Hungry Heart
Working on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Raise Your Hand
Cover Me
Because the Night
Thunder Road
Waiting on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Dark End of the Street
Kingdom of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born to Run

Encore:
Hard Times Come Again No More
Bobby Jean
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Land
Glory Days
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Dancing in the Dark

I hope we will see him perform this tonight:

If he does I will go nuts.... :)
Anyway, we are leaving at noon for Tampere to watch mr Springsteen and his E-Street Band tonight.
He seems to perform some really good sixties covers on a regular basis on this tour.
And "Outlaw Pete" of course :)
A report will follow whenever I recover...