ZKV 44: Goodbye PA! (pa knew it meant 'God be with you')

ZKV44

ryge – røg - røget vb.
1) (tobacco etc.) smoke;
2) (disinfect) fumigate;
3) (conserve) smoke e.g. fish;
4) (emit smoke) the chimney/volcano is smoking;
5) (move swiftly) he rushed downstairs, he jumped out of bed;
6) (disappear, stop working) go to pot, go up in smoke, go phut;
7) (go bankrupt) go bust.

It’s around midnight in mid-April 1980. I’m in bed in Sweden and downstairs the phone rings. It’s brother Mike. ‘Bad news, I’m afraid. Pa’s died.’ I go up and tell the wife. ‘Not now. Tell me in the morning.’

I fly over a couple of days before the funeral, to be held on St. George’s Day. Appropriate in a way, that’s Pa’s only first name.

What memories? Pa dressed in a shroud in his coffin. The moons of his thumbs beautiful. Ma accidently hauling the garage roof down while my head is in the way. Blood. Psalm 23 sung in a full church. Mike and I not allowed to be coffin bearers – all done professionally. I want white and red roses, but have reluctantly agreed to the Swedish colours, which means a weird bouquet of daffodils and irises. The drive to the crematorium after the service for a ghoulish coffin ride into the oven. Outside, I look up at the church tower (the crematorium is a make-over) and discover a kind of chimney emitting smoke. Pa is being converted into ashes to strew on beds of heather. ‘Dér røg far’ (Pa gone up in smoke) I think to myself.