SMALL MIRACLE IN OSLO
When we left Stockholm, we headed by train to Oslo, Norway, knowing that we actually had nowhere to stay for the night...
The friend we had planned to visit there was still out of town on a bike tour...of France! The Visitors' Bureau assured us, by phone, though, that we would find a good place...that there was never any problem....
The train trip was comfortable and fun...with good meals and even fresh fruit in a bowl in the corner of the car! a lovely trip...
we pulled into the station in Oslo by early evening...plenty of time to find shelter!....
But, to our amazement, the Visitors' Bureau, right outside of the station, was filled to the brim with disgruntled tourists...maybe a hundred folks in all!
It turns out there was a convention in the city...all the available rooms were gone...and a soccer match in the city as well...with lots of people staying for days! The nearest accommodations were hours away! what were we going to do?
An idea came to me like a light through trees in a dark forest...come with me, I said....upstairs we went, back into the station....up to the second floor where the concessions were...
what I had remembered, was that there was a little franchise bistro sort of place upstairs, where the woman behind the counter spoke good English when she had given me directions to the Visitors' Bureau...she had even told a joke in English!...
over I went to her, to see if she could help us....
She listened to my story about what we needed and why very quietly....then she asked the funniest question I have ever been asked in all my born-days...."Do you steal?"....
suddenly, from deep in my belly, deep in my spirit, came a wave of true laughter!
I began to laugh, and laugh, and laugh and laugh!
Through my laughter, I managed to ask her..."Just what do you expect me to say now?! Yes, that I steal? No, that I don't steal?...which would be true?!"
At that, she also burst into laughter! and said..."Wait here. I am going to talk to my boyfriend."
Off she went to the phone, while I motioned my husband over, and explained that I thought maybe she was going to help us somehow....
Back she came. more introductions. more looking us up and down...finally, she said...
"You can come and stay with my boyfriend and me for the night. This is my business, I have to close up. but then you can stay. I have always wanted Americans to stay with us sometime. I was an exchange student in Ohio when I was in high school. My boyfriend hasn't met any Americans." Delighted with her spontaneity and straight-forward manner, we accepted, and said we would reimburse them for any expense...she just shrugged that offer off....
Two hours later, we had crossed the Oslo Fjord on a ferry into the night, to a peninsula on the other side from the city. we drove in her car to their wonderful, and large, cabin a few blocks from the water...they were Hennie and Thomas...they were charming!
They made us right at home and fed us soup and delicious dark bread and wine...In their thirties, they were a match of opposites....
He was like a huge teddy bear, all grin and growl and with a blond shock of hair...he had only been to America by sailing to Florida, to pick up a new boat he had bought...he didn't seem to have an actual 'job'...he was wealthy, and invested, he said... He had two kids from a previous marriage, who were a bit of a headache to them both, it seemed, tho the kids mainly lived with their mother....
Hennie was the practical one...she owned her Railway Station Bistro, and spent ten hours a day, six days a week there, and sometimes more....she had property in the mountains above a far fjord... she continued to be forthright and good-hearted without any sentimentality at all....
Soon we had exchanged as many stories about our lives as was possible in one evening...off we went to bed. we, to the basement, sleeping on a huge comforter, with another on top, on an equally huge wall-bed...
the next day, we packed and thanked them as we came upstairs...but they had something to offer us...if we wanted, we could stay all the three days we planned on being in Oslo, without paying them anything! After the usual protests and so on, we accepted. What a delight! Off we went to the ferry with Hennie, as she was going into work that morning....
We went to all the museums that day in the city; then to see the KonTiki museum island; then to the Frogner Sculpture Park....Norway was delighting us day by day...but not as much as Hennie and Thomas were!....they fed us every night and morning. escorted us back and forth on the ferry. chatted with us until the wee hours. treated us exactly as if we were dear old friends....
It was time for us to continue our travels...we were heading to Copenhagen, to see the Little Mermaid for a day! Then we were to be on our way to Amsterdam by a train that would be ferried over the waters into the lowlands...
we were going to leave Scandinavia behind....
Hennie and Thomas refused all reimbursement...I told them I would send them foods and coffees from the San Francisco Bay Area when we returned home that fall...they agreed, and gave me a little wish list of foods they would like to try....
She and he accompanied us one more time across the fjord to the train station. we hugged. they waived goodbye. we climbed aboard....
I have had generous encounters all my days with strangers. People have been very, very kind to me, so often, that I cannot count or recall all the times...still,
our time with Hennie and Thomas was so genuine, so real, so very open and good, that I am still amazed each time I recall them...
I really wanted to stay friends with them. I sent them a letter of thanks right away. when we returned 'home', I sent them a Care Package of all the treats and coffee they had requested, and more... I emailed them. I sent them copies of all of the pictures we took of them and Oslo....
I received back: one email, thanking me for the packages, and saying that they had enjoyed our visit...Once again, I offered them our home, should they ever come to visit in the Western United States....
I never heard from them again...
I send them Christmas cards each year since, renewing my offer of friendship...but, no answers...
Perhaps they 'broke up' and went separate ways....they did seem to have some struggles, especially over his children, where the tension was most obvious....
perhaps, our visit had been exactly all they needed from knowing us....
I suppose I'll never know....
Memories of Oslo, Norway would be pleasant, but not so vivid, so personal, as they are when I remember Hennie and Thomas....
I can recall every room in their house and their property and the boat and the ferry ride and the islands and the fjord and the beauty of Oslo...
I remember, easily, each conversation. and the jokes. and the pictures shared. and the wonderful meals. and his children...
I can see their smiles. hear their intelligence. feel their constancy in generosity, without strain. without a need for total reciprocation.
We were lucky for the amazing privilege of finding housing that night in the Oslo Train Station...
But, our real fortune and miracle was finding people who could open their hearts and homes to strangers, and make them friends...
if only for a few days.
with true kindness...
the sweetest miracle of all....
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