The last two years he's been living in a room at a retirement home, he couldn't manage to live alone in his house anymore, old people worsen quickly... four years ago he could still drive his car. - He stopped after driving into the ditch, leading to quite some work getting it back up on the road again.- 3 years ago he could still ride his bike. Then he got worse after celebrating his birthday despite having a virus. His physical condition changed, his way of looking at life didn't, his attitude has always been to thank god for each extra day he gets. Thanking god as fitting for a priest, which he was. He wasn't always so sure that he would be a priest however, before that he was a sergeant in the army guarding the Swedish border during ww2.
When the war was over he had three very different jobs he thought about, priest, soldier or gardener. He's always had a passion for plants and kept his large garden in good shape all by himself the entire time, despite his high age. That passion for plants also resultet in the book Selma Lagerlöfs papyrus. A papyrus that made it to his home, and from seeds there our terrace here in Stockholm, I just gave it water. He never personally met Selma Lagerlöf, but he did meet many famous personalities that few people alive today have met, Nathan Söderblom for example.
A while later he had three children, my mother, her sister and her brother, which has now resulted in 9 grandchildren and 5 grand-grandchildren. He got to meet them all, the picture where he holds the youngest one, just a few months old, in his hands is very beautiful, as are many other pictures.
After he retired he held exhibitions in a local house called the stone house. They could be about pretty much everything really, one was about kick sledges. The subject might seem very boring but everything became interesting in his exhibitions that were very popular among the people in the village Hammarby where he lived. He wrote a lot, sending his large family many letters and is the one I got my talent for writing from. Just like me he wrote odd/funny poetry, for example about a discussion between his toothbrush and his soap, rhymes of course. And then, after many years as very active retiree I guess his body just couldn't handle it anymore, he took it well, three years before his death he said: "The closer you come to the finish line the more exciting it gets."
Now he has crossed the finish line, I don't know what found behind it, he was probably quite sure it was heaven. I don't think he was correct, I believe he just stopped existing, but due to his belief his last moments shouldn't have been hard for him. I may be the black sheep of the family, being the only atheist, but I really thank religion for letting him die happy. I think a lot about that he died that way, to comfort myself, I actually cried a little while writing this. His funeral will be the 25th, they have a problem with that the hall, large enough for 150, wont be large enough for everyone coming, I understand why.
R.i.p. Carl Adolf Murray, 25/9 1912 - 10/7 2014.
Papers also wrote about him.
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/regionalt/gavledala/carl-adolf-murray-ar-dod
http://www.arbetarbladet.se/gastrikland/sandviken/han-var-en-fantastisk-manniska-1
http://www.gd.se/kultur/en-sann-humanist
http://www.arbetarbladet.se/gastrikland/sandviken/en-kulturprofil-har-lamnat-jorden
http://www.svenskakyrkan.se/default.aspx?id=1152636
And there is a movie, called "Life as a gift" in Swedish, which is exactly how he saw life, and perhaps exactly how we all should, religious or not.