#66 Legoland

Once we knew about Janne’s prognosis, we took advantage of our time together. We had taken a trip to Legoland when the boys were very young. We remembered it as a good place. In September, we asked Daniel what he wanted for his birthday. The answer was Legoland. Although it was logistically complex, we thought that it was a good chance to collect memories. Janne figured out the best time to go during one of the weeks when she didn’t have a chemotherapy.

We planned our trip to Denmark by land. It was a brand new experience while driving an electric car. Our route would take us via two ferries to Stockholm with a brief stop at Helsinki. We would then drive to a town in Sweden to spend the night and then onwards to Billund in Denmark. A bit over 900 km in total by car.

The night at the ferry was not good for Janne. She couldn’t sleep well. With her chemotherapies, she was oversensitive to a bad night of sleep. We talked of turning around and going back, but she would try to sleep in our first night in Sweden. While Janne rested, we were playing pool for hours and had dinner the three of us. Janne slept deeply and woke up like a new person next day. The plan continued.

Legoland was a great time for all of us. We went to a water park and an arcade the first night. The next two days were full of Legos. We had gotten the boys two “debit cards” with a little money. They wanted to buy a small lego set with them. I said yes, but they had to do it themselves. They disappeared for a while and came back with a big smile and a toy. They had negotiated themselves with the hotel shop attendant in English and had managed to get something. The toy was not as important as the feeling of doing something on their own. This was all intentional from our side.

Janne and I decided to take a walk by ourselves and found a cafe nearby. We talked about how good everything was going. But then, we both started weeping. It was September, but we couldn’t make plans for Christmas. We had an idea of how bad this could be.

We did have that Christmas, our last one. Legoland will forever be a happy place for me. I just wish we could all go back once more.