Mecca of Welfare. SWEDEN
The welfare village about an hour from Stockholm had extensive premises where squirrels were disporting in a woods and water birds sailing on a lake. Pipe organ playing mixed with a chorus was heard from a church on a hillock. Riding in a car on the premises, I saw some old people gazing away sitting on chairs on a veranda of a low building. I recognized the building to be my destination, so I went into it to look for the person who I had expected to see. But I didn't find the person. When I was at a loss, a lady in her plain clothes called me with a smile. She surprised me, since she was totally different from my expectation which she must have been an angel in white. In the building, weekly or monthly timetables were nowhere to be seen. While I asked about it, she seemed to wonder why I put such a question to her. They say that they take the old people out for a walk in good weather, but it is not compulsory. They maintain a peaceful life; festivities and entertainment are out of question, and it is no sense of beauty to display artworks on the walls, they think. It might be efficient to adjust a man's life to a schedule, but not suitable for an elder person. They have tried making the environment to be fit for men of culture and discretion, what they should be like, not for sick men, what they are like. After the whirlwind tour such as a visit to apartments for the aged of senile dementia, in the plane on my return trip, a beautiful blond Norwegian woman who happened to sit next to me laughingly said, " Health care and welfare in Sweden are on the verge of collapse and the system will be revise in a while. Norway is far ahead of Sweden in the field." (1988/27/Oct)
