For a couple of years there has been a bloke posting a letter trying to find a woman in Sweden:
I met Maria Nillsen, along with her friend, on a beach in Eastbourne, Sussex, England in the early 1960’s (1962ish) when I would have been 18 and she a similar age. I was on the beach with a friend and somehow managed to strike up a conversation with these beautiful young Swedish ladies with a killer line “ do you know what the time is”? It worked but Maria had to leave for her work in a guest house and not being very confident I asked her friend if she would pass on a message. If there was a positive response Maria would leave a sweater in her window and joy of joy the sweater was waiting.
And so began a most wonderful THREE months of innocence and joy. We were both working during the day but we saw each other EVERY evening during that time. We walked, we talked, we romanced and I especially remember our “Butch Cassidy” moments as I took her home sitting on the crossbar of my bike “raindrops keep falling on my head “etc....heady times...my first love which will live with me forever. We had our own private bubble, it seemed a natural place for both of us .Even now when I walk near the sea I can feel her presence and the breeze ruffling through her hair. She was my Svenska Flicka.
What went wrong ? We wrote to each other over the following months and I had an invite to visit her in Sweden but I know that I was very immature and I sense that my letter writing skills didn’t show me off in the best light. Also I had made no plans for her return, I just expected it to happen, naive or what? Maybe it was none of the above and probably I will never know, will I?
(1963 ish) She did return the following year and we arranged to meet at Eastbourne Station. That was the last time that I saw her as she told me that she was seeing someone else. I was heartbroken and just walked away without saying a word. Life went on and slowly I was able to find a” happy memories place” for our romance and was able to look at our photos with a feeling of joy for what had been.
2022. I am now 78 and time has come for a clear out of old paperwork and photos. I started looking at those photos again but this time with more than a casual glance. I now realise what an important and significant episode that had been in my life and I found myself dangerously entering the “if only, what if” world. This slowly filled my mind and I was having a strong urge to trace Maria and find out how life had turned out for her and a need to round off, what had been a wonderful relationship. Amazing that over 58 years these feelings had been tucked away and have now inexplicably flooded back into my life so energetically. The brain is a strange place and how unpredictable the past is.
If Maria or anyone who knows of her read this I would be overjoyed to have the chance to make contact and possibly exchange stories of our lives...first loves are so powerful.
I'm trying my best to help this bloke through looking in different registers etc. and asking in Swedish FB groups but struggling to have any success.
Very long shot: anyone living in Eastbourne back then and accidently running into a Swede named Maria?
I met Maria Nillsen, along with her friend, on a beach in Eastbourne, Sussex, England in the early 1960’s (1962ish) when I would have been 18 and she a similar age. I was on the beach with a friend and somehow managed to strike up a conversation with these beautiful young Swedish ladies with a killer line “ do you know what the time is”? It worked but Maria had to leave for her work in a guest house and not being very confident I asked her friend if she would pass on a message. If there was a positive response Maria would leave a sweater in her window and joy of joy the sweater was waiting.
And so began a most wonderful THREE months of innocence and joy. We were both working during the day but we saw each other EVERY evening during that time. We walked, we talked, we romanced and I especially remember our “Butch Cassidy” moments as I took her home sitting on the crossbar of my bike “raindrops keep falling on my head “etc....heady times...my first love which will live with me forever. We had our own private bubble, it seemed a natural place for both of us .Even now when I walk near the sea I can feel her presence and the breeze ruffling through her hair. She was my Svenska Flicka.
What went wrong ? We wrote to each other over the following months and I had an invite to visit her in Sweden but I know that I was very immature and I sense that my letter writing skills didn’t show me off in the best light. Also I had made no plans for her return, I just expected it to happen, naive or what? Maybe it was none of the above and probably I will never know, will I?
(1963 ish) She did return the following year and we arranged to meet at Eastbourne Station. That was the last time that I saw her as she told me that she was seeing someone else. I was heartbroken and just walked away without saying a word. Life went on and slowly I was able to find a” happy memories place” for our romance and was able to look at our photos with a feeling of joy for what had been.
2022. I am now 78 and time has come for a clear out of old paperwork and photos. I started looking at those photos again but this time with more than a casual glance. I now realise what an important and significant episode that had been in my life and I found myself dangerously entering the “if only, what if” world. This slowly filled my mind and I was having a strong urge to trace Maria and find out how life had turned out for her and a need to round off, what had been a wonderful relationship. Amazing that over 58 years these feelings had been tucked away and have now inexplicably flooded back into my life so energetically. The brain is a strange place and how unpredictable the past is.
If Maria or anyone who knows of her read this I would be overjoyed to have the chance to make contact and possibly exchange stories of our lives...first loves are so powerful.
I'm trying my best to help this bloke through looking in different registers etc. and asking in Swedish FB groups but struggling to have any success.
Very long shot: anyone living in Eastbourne back then and accidently running into a Swede named Maria?
