About me

I was born into a Quaker family in Iowa, USA in 1954. My father's work as educator and anthropologist took us to many places in midwestern USA and to Guatemala.

I married into a Swedish Quaker family in 1974 and moved with my husband Mats to his family farm, Svartbäcken, outside the little town of Rimbo in Uppland, Sweden. 

We raised a family of four children, farmed, fosterhomed children and cared for substance abusers.

I worked as a language teacher for many years before working for the Swedish Quakers, and later also for Quakers internationally, between 1992 and 2023, when I retired fully.

Music and dance have been central aspects of my life. Classical ballet lessons as a child led to ethnic dances as a teenager. Once I moved to Sweden, I learned some of the folkdances in that tradition.  I began playing the viola and violin as a child and continued playing folkmusic. In due time I felt the need to learn more about playing the violin and began taking lessons. This has led me to chamber music, and I spend much of my time making music with friends and performing now and then. I play both violin and viola. The folkmusic tradition is still very alive in me, and the tunes I have learned by ear are never forgotten.

Arturo the parrot has been part of my family since 1968, when he joined us in Guatemala at the age of 4 months. He accompanied me to Sweden in 1975. He became aggressive toward me when our first child was born in 1976. He was caged for over 40 years. We were reconciled at his initiative in 2019 and spend all our time together since then.