Elfvie – the Gaffer
Strolling around in Elfvie’s house raises many emotions to life. Her life seems in so many ways filled with happiness, but it is the feeling of loneliness that strikes you. Photo frames adorn every wall and garnishes every chest of drawers. Elderly, children, family and friends smiles widely through the glasses of the frames. Take a seat in her chaise longue and take in all the little things in the room before opening one of her many photo albums.
Feel the cracks in the leather couch complaining under your weight. Pull your hands over the longhaired carpet and then stand on the footstool to make out the carpet’s true motive. The lucid garn in ocean blue, plum and white looks like a spur of the moment pattern. But from the birds eye you can explore the careful outline of a girl kissing a dove.
There are too many details for the eye to absorb. You need to walk up to the first figurine in order to detect the other ones standing next to it. They are all deliberately placed. The china dancer on one leg leans gently toward the little glass bird in cobalt. Every statuette stands firmly on a crocheted homemade tablecloth. All this knitting, must have taken a lifetime to complete. Whenever you feel ready you can start with the album to the left in the bookshelf.
Elfvie was born one year after a legendary ocean liner sank on its maiden voyage. On her first birthday a black hand caused the outburst of a world war. What she remembers from this period are knee high socks, black patent sandals and colourful hand-knits. She gets frustrated of the black and white pictures and from that she does not like to read papers whiteout colour. “That time was as lively and bright as my garden”, she says. Furthermore, she thinks that each and every book and picture from this period should be added with some colour to be perceived with justice. “And while they are still on to it they can apply some music and scent to the old paper leaves as well”, she said once.
Elfvie has added real essences to her photo albums. It is very easy to miss and most people fail to take notice of the unthinkable. I try to look at the pictures in the same way as you do with a three-dimensional image. It’s kind of a dull stare. You look at the picture with sleepiness. The difficulty is to remain calm in the eye when the picture starts to come alive. You get a real glimpse of a bygone time. By page two you should also be able to take in the violin’s sweet whining like a leaf in heavy wind.
Elfvie still has the look of an angel on a bookmark. The cute rounded face and the short curly hair has not changed over the years. She has just taken on a brighter almost transparent image. When Elfvie smiles her dimples pop up like firecrackers in her face and the whole world shiver of amusement. It’s totally contagious. Her laugh tickles anyone and anything.
Once, Elfvie´s two great-grandchildren came to visit and as a tradition they got a chocolate bar with a coin properly taped to it. The eldest girl gratefully refused the little penny. “It is just too much” she said”. Since, the girl declined her gift Elfvie took it back and put it again in it’s jar in the pantry. Not even a tearful eye of a great-grandchild may make Elfvie surrender to her stubbornness. Thus, Elfvie is a gaffer. You will see the whole event in a later photo album.
These days, I know how hard it is to be a slave under your own persistence. Even behind the curtain waving to the children’s departure Elfvie did not admit her defeat. When the sad lump in her belly would not go away she chose to bury it in the garden. With shovel and rake, she set out into autumn and under the afternoon sun she buried the big lump of discomfort under the flowerbed.
