Ann-Kristin Thulin-Särnbrink has, as one aptly says in Swedish, stepped out of time. My beloved cousin died in the morning of Easter Monday. An unexpected heart failure took her breath and spirit away. Her husband Nils-Erik, who was quickly joined by medically trained people, could only begin to try to absorb the fact that his soulmate of nearly 50 years was no longer there.
When asked to write something about Ann-Kristin, who was one of the initiators of the “…for a new world” project, and without whom it would never have come to birth, I suddenly thought of a song from “The Sound of Music”. One line the nuns sing about Maria caught my imagination all those years ago: “How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?”
For Swedes of my generation, one could say that she embodied the best qualities, including humour, that we associate with the area of the country where her roots were – Värmland.
In Ann-Kristin three sources of life met and flowed out of her as one indivisible stream:
Her child-like faith in a loving Father in heaven; The spiritual and moral re-armament needed today that was expressed by Frank Buchman; The vision of a society and world built on solidarity that she caught in part through Nils-Erik at first, and then through her own and their common involvement with the Social Democratic party of Sweden.
Until the very end she believed in and lived out the dream of a classless society, where children of different colours not only play together, but where each child is welcomed and encouraged to develop her or his full potential, independent of background - and given the opportunities to do so.
She was naturally curious and especially interested in the people that crossed her path. She and Nils-Erik opened their hearts and home to people from all walks of life, and the mass of flowers and many visitors over the hours after her sudden passing have underlined this. Their “adopted” Cuban family came very soon to share their grief.
Ann-Kristin was generous with her time and their limited economic resources. She was a pragmatist, who was keener on getting things done rather than talking about them.
She had a big and warm heart with space for much and many. But a warm heart can get badly hurt, and I can’t help feeling that she experienced more than her fair share of pain and betrayal. Not least when their third child – daughter Anna, was taken from them by leukemia at the age of 4. But through everything her simple faith sustained her and them. At times it was near breaking point, but it held. And it was infectious, and rubbed off on many of us.
Some time after Anna had died her brother, Erik would go to the phone on the wall and press the star key. He would then lift the receiver and talk to his little sister. It was so natural to think that Anna had become one of the twinkling stars that light up the night sky for courage and guidance.
Another star has now been added and I for one will seek its light.
PS. If you want to see a little known side of Ann-Kristin check out the film on the platform called Destination An 2000 from a winter conference in Caux. For those of my generation it is quite amusing to watch all of the 15 minutes. But if you start at 12:48 you will find a jazz group. Ann-Kristin is second from left, playing the trumpet. In fact, not surprisingly she is the only woman!
If you pause at 4:18 in the clip you will not only see Ann-Kristin on stage singing, but, more significantly, her brother Lars is playing, in the middle, playing guitar. They would quite often play and sing together.
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