Torsten Rosander in Soläng has passed away at the age of 92 years.
We have taken a final farewell to our good friend Torsten. He was a rare person with many strings on his lyre. For me and in my eyes he was a philosopher and a thinker; he was also an inventor, who was fascinated by technical solutions, but they should be simple and people-friendly; he was a environmentalist, who with wisdom and judgment took the gifts that nature gave, but he also gave back with concern for nature's own life and beauty. Torsten was also a master craftsman.
As a teenager I was a substitute mailman for the postman Alvar in the summers around 1960, and I delivered the post in the villages around Fagerhult. What a fantastic opportunity to get to know the area and its inhabitants. When I came to the last mailbox of the first-round of the postal route, the mailbag would have one remaining copy of The Barometer, and the newspaper should be put in the mailbox of Torsten Rosander in Soläng. I often had conversations with him and with other townspeople along the postal route.
At that time I thought that Torsten was very old, but the older I became, the younger he became. During the last 20 years we have had many conversations: along forest paths, on country roads, on the veranda and in Maja and Torsten's garden. The conversations concerned questions about life, about world politics, current events, local issues, economics, technical developments, life in the old days, and his friendship with my own father. Torsten had thoughts about the various issues and he had opinions on most of them. His arguments were based on his large general knowledge, intelligence, experience, and a keen ability for analysis. He decried the evil in the world and condemned injustice and the abuse of power. Nobody emerged untouched from a conversation with Torsten.
The large circle of friends of all ages of the Rosander family represents together an infinite number of discussions, coffee klatches, and dinners in hospitable Soläng, which hold themselves firmly in the memory. Maja and Torsten comprise a concept for many people, which represents warmth, friendship, hospitality, laughter, and happiness. The combination of an environmentalist and a technical person led Torsten two years ago to install geothermal heating in his house. He penetrated all the technical details of the pumps and the exchangers. His considerations about the origin of the energy he pumped into the house led to many discussions. Was it is stored solar energy from outer space, or was it nuclear power from the inner core of the earth that he took up to the surface? We agreed to a compromise that suited Torsten - a combination of heat that came partly from the outside and partly from the inside. Knowledge of Torsten's craftmanship and handwork is widely accepted and his originally designed and constructed furniture is proof of his creativity, his precision and his skilled workmanship.
We grieve now with Maja and her family, but if I knew Torsten correctly, he would wish for this sorrow to quickly pass to thoughts of the good memories we have of him. He was a realist, and time has its cycle. He lived a long and full life. Certain emptinesses cannot be filled. Personally I hope that he has taken his wonderful soft smile with him in his casket, and that he takes his relieving laughter and his earthy wisdom with him up to his heaven - to the heaven he believed in.
Sveneric Johansson