sweden“Why don’t you just go back to Sweden?” asked one of the NTU nurses.  Good question.  Sweden is my country after all; that’s home; where my family and friends are; where I belong.  Besides, Swedish medical care is supposed to be world-class.

The problem is only that I haven’t lived in Sweden properly for some thirty years.  I’ve been busy seeing the world — Japan, the US, Italy, Britain, and now East Asia.  My old mother lives there and my sister Lena, and cousins and other relatives, but I don’t have any very close friends there anymore.  And I was not impressed with the care my father got when he died of cancer six years ago.  He was sent from one hospital to another by arrogant, and not obviously knowledgeable, doctors.  I fear it would take me too long to find a hospital, to do the tests, and I’d most likely have to wait around far longer for treatment.

I’m better off here in Taiwan.  We have our friends, great doctors, no time delays.  Besides, this is where our lives are.  We live here, not anywhere else.

The only scenario under which we’d go back to Sweden is if news turned out to be very bad for me.  Sweden is a much better place than Taiwan for Diane and the kids to start a new life.  My sister Lena would help them, and the famous Swedish welfare state.

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