On 9 June, the day after my arrival in Stockholm, I visited Lidingö Kyrka’s Church Office to provide for the upkeep of Gerald’s stone for the next 10 years, and also to pay for the repair of the stone.  I was assured by the Church Officer that the stone would never be removed because of Gerald’s celebrity status.  This is wonderful news! The small piece of damage above Gerald’s name had already been repaired, but the damage to the bottom left-hand side has still to be done, hopefully within the next week or two.  I will be informed when this has been completed.  Business done, I went down to the Columbarium to the stone and was disappointed to see that the flowers I had placed last year had been removed by persons unknown.  I cleaned the empty cup and cut back the ever-encroaching ivy.

On 11 June I returned, accompanied by my travelling companion, Louie Donald, and Sven Erick Alm, Gerald’s step nephew, who I had met at Lidingö Centrum a few minutes previously.  I placed the flowers in the cup and the card underneath.  However, Sven Erick suggested I add a yellow flower (the red, white and blue coloured artificial flowers, plus the Thistle of Scotland, depict the Scottish and American flags) as, of course, the Swedish flag is blue and yellow.  I found a suitable yellow artificial flower in the NK department store in the city centre the following day, and returned to Lidingö on 15 June, just hours before my flight back home, to place it in the cup.

On 14 June we had lunch with Bert Sundberg and Pontus Gustafson and also said “Hello” to Christina Schollin in her shop in Gamla Stan.  However, Christina told me she will be closing the shop in a couple of months’ time to concentrate on distributing a line in beauty products.  Earlier in the week I also met with Michael Valin, who is assisting me in my search for the frontage for the Hotel Frontier.  My thanks to everyone for taking the time to meet me again this year.