The Queen is also doubtful about how society has succeeded in its goal of protecting the elderly during the pandemic.
“It is extremely frightening that so many elderly people have died in the pandemic in Sweden. And it was with sadness in my heart that I saw that all the elderly who died became just a number in the statistics. Old people sat alone with their anxiety and their pain.”
[...]
Queen Silvia sits opposite me and tells me how difficult it was, when the infection was ravaging our nursing homes the most, to sit isolated at Stenhammar Castle and not be able to do anything for the elderly.
“It is easy to imagine the pain that all the elderly feel in isolation. I understand that the authorities want well but people are suffering."
I follow up by asking if we have succeeded in our most important mission, to protect the elderly during the pandemic.
"It depends on how you see it… but preferably I want to avoid answering that question."
I understand that a clearer answer can ignite the criticism of the part of the Swedish strategy that would protect the old and fragile. And there the Queen is careful, but the silence in the answer gives a hint.
[...]
Together with Ingvar Kamprad and Ikea, the Queen developed a modern form of senior apartments for couples who lived a whole life together and would now have the opportunity to live together even when one of them suffers from Alzheimer's. The Queen saw these six apartments as a pilot project to perhaps develop into a model for the whole of Sweden.
But the Queen's neighbors have stopped patients from moving into their homes. On paper for formal reasons. And for the past three years, they have been completely empty.
"This makes me very sad, that you (neighbors, authorities) can not see that it is a well-meaning project and that I do it with my heart."
I ask if the Queen deep down suspects that the real reason why the neighbors want to stop SilviaBo is due to prejudice and that but do not want dementia so close to them.
"I do not dare to ask because I am afraid it is so. It is so painful and cruel that we have nice apartments that are just empty.”
[...]
Drottning Silvia i sin första poddintervju_ ”Skrämmande att äldre som dött i pandemin bara blir en siffra i statistiken” - Alzheimer Life
Drottning Silvia om tiden i karantän_ ”Så mycket 70-plus”
