We don't know if he will be turned away and not let into Sweden on Sunday when he arrives.
It's worth a try.
We made a commitment to each other that no matter what
we were going to make this long distance - this crazy long distance -relationship work
by committing that that we would we would see each other
at least every three months. We've been able to do that
for seven years now. Until - Covid.
I'd been working in pretty high pressure political jobs in DC for the previous several years
and I kind of want to get a reset and figure out what I wanted to do after that.
And i'd also gone through the divorce in the year before.
I loved doing hiking biking trails so i decided to to walk thecamino de santiago.
I've been wanting to do it for a few years and now when i finally
got to do it it was actually to survive for my loss of my husband.
So i was walking through the village and I saw a bunch of pilgrims in the park
having a little picnic.
And they invited me over and so i joined them.
And then a little bit later Tina walked by and it was obvious that she was a fellow pilgrim.
That moment changed my whole life.
I'll show you what the plan of the year looked like.
The green highlights here are when we were supposed to meet up.
You know once the the border closures happened with the US and then
Europe as well, we knew that it would be... it was out of our control.
So that made us feel helpless. Because it felt very lonely.
It felt pretty lonely for a while.
Tina checked through the Swedish police website.
There who controls the border I found this two lines that said that if you can
have proof that you have a long-term relationship you can enter Sweden.
You know - you're allowed.
So the good news is nine days from today, I'm heading to the airport and I'm getting on a plane.
We don't know if he will be turned away and not let into Sweden
on Sunday when he arrives. It's worth the try.
It's tradition that I get Tina flowers when I arrive. So
I just got off the plane in Stockholm and I knew Tina was out here waiting for me.
So for the first time in nine months we got to see each other and we got to hug.