My brave mother
It was in the middle of the summer between fifth and sixth grade when dramatic things happened. I was eleven years old and I was in an interrogation with the police in Stockholm. The leader of my sports club and my teacher as well was suspected for sexual abuse of young boys.
Yes, we had been taken "down there", as the female police and the interrogator asked me to say instead of dick or penis. Certainly only from outside of my pants, or through the pants pockets, but it had been very painful when he squeezed the testicles I told the big microphone in front of me during the interrogation. A terrible pain almost made me sick. Yes, that happened a number of times. It had begun in fourth grade when we were ten years old, and as ten years small boys we did not understand anything. Why did he do that to us? I It took some time before we realized that it was about sexual acts. suddenly it was clear in the middle of the street on my way home from school. He pinches us on our dicks because he gets horny on little boys! I froze in the middle of my step. I took my way straight home and told my mother. She couldn´t believe what she heard. The teacher was a nice gentleman that all the parents liked. My dear mom chose to listen and believed what I told her. Then she lift the big telephone and call around other parents, however, they did not want to talk about it and hang up. Mother sat on the couch and put down the phone with a worried face, turned to me and said that then we have to go to the police alone. As we stepped up through the wide marble stairways in the Kungsholmen police station, my loss of control was total. What have I done, and what was I going to do? My heart pumped hard and the brain fluttered when I was placed on a big chair in front of a giant microphone besides a tape recorder, and my tiny legs was dangling high above solid ground.
Me and my closest friends had done well in comparison to others we understand. There were others who had suffered significantly worse. The process led to a conviction for our teacher and sports leader. When the prison gates closed behind him, the gates were also closed for our sports club, Solberga IF. My proud moments in the club dress had barely begun before they were over. But I had once got a gold medal in a football tournament, as I sat and in front of the black and white TV in my home I squeezed the medal warmly in my hand.
Maybe it was my longing for having a real football dress again, pretending I was a pro that made me suddenly say the crucial words that afternoon; "We have to start a new club so we can play for real." Perhaps it seemed that I felt guilty that the club was have to close down after my testimony. Maybe I could make up for everything by starting a new club? I remember we thought there was a good bunch of guys in school and our classmates that could be the beginning of the beginning and form the new team. We brought together those who wanted to join us and sign up for a tournament as a team we reasoned. Time pass by and for a couple of weeks ago we celebrated the club's fifty-year anniversary! A successful story that made thousands of us having a wonderful time together throughout the years with our sport club Solberga BK!
My brave mother listened and acted when necessary, what no other adult had courage to do at that time. It took another five decades before it became public awareness to dare to act. For me it became a turning point in life. Adults listened and believed me. My teacher, the highest authority in my life. lost against med and got his punishment. Already then, as eleven years old, I was stopped by angry parents on the street yelling at me because I had revealed and exposed what our the powerful man’s wrongdoing. It would turn out to be a pattern that should followed the rest of my life.