Many readers of this blog will know my good friend and colleague Bjorn Johansson, who runs the Clues centre in Karlstad, Sweden with his partner Eva Persson.  I visited Björn and Eva in Karlstad yesterday. Some of you may know that Björn has not been well in recent months. What was originally thought to be disc pain in the back has turned out after many weeks of agony to be cancerous tumours of the type adeno carcinoma. For the last 80 days Björn has been in hospital, and Eva has been living there too during the past weeks to help and care for him.

Now at last Björn is showing signs of responding to new medication. We are hoping that he may get strong enough to return home for the summer. This could also mean the possibility of chemotherapy treatment, which his immune system is currently too weak to take. There is no guarantee that even this will help. Bjorn cannot even walk at the moment – months in bed means that his leg muscles have wasted away, though he is starting physiotherapy to regain strength and is being very well cared for.

There is no recovery prognosis. Björn has somewhere between two and six months to live, at best. He is 48 years old. He is lucky to have a wonderful family who have found ways to put their lives on hold to be with him. Their joint goal is now to make the coming months ‘the best summer of all’ for Björn.

How could you contribute to this? Send an email or even an old fashioned card to Björn with some words of appreciation, support and fellowship. What stands out for you – his contributions to SOLWorld from the very start (and even before), his hundreds of workshops, his work across Sweden and around the world, the exciting Karlstad group meetings, the SF summit, the Swedish SFCT chapter, the mop-scaling process set out in the Solutions Focus Working case book, even the classic ‘Björn’ exercise in threes (“Out of all the things you’re doing at work at the moment…”)… he and Eva have of course stepped back from organising the SOLWorld 2014 conference. If he gets home there may be possibilities to visit if you can.

You may want to reply here, and I urge you to send something personal too. Please do not expect an instant reply – Björn has not been strong enough to even read email, but Eva will help to pass on your messages.  Send things by email to bjorn@clues.se, or by mail to
Långmyrsgatan 8,
65469 Karlstad
Sweden

Update 7 June 2014: I received this update yesterday from Eva at the hospital

Dear Mark / Jenny

We are still at the hospital and it has been both up and downs since last time. New infections, more than 2 liter in on of the lung again, and the tumor on the left  kidney grows so the kidney is not working at all. BUT he has been out of the bed, tried to take some small steps around the bed : ) AND they plan to start chemotherapy next week, if no more complications will come., in order to try to reduce pain and tumors. So that is very very good news! We still dont now when he can come home, but i hope and think it will bee in two weeks time ( I have said that a couple of times now so this time I think it will happened). It still comes a lot of nice e-mails and post cards!!! we are so grateful and thanks Mark for pass on our greetings. We have put all the e-mails and cards on the wall so it reminds us that we have a lot of friends out there waiting for Bjorn. He have a plan to respond to everyone when he have the strength! We would like you to say something about that: how much we appreciate the response and it keep us buzzy to read all those good stories how to make the best summer ever that so many have shared! So even if we now are not able to answer we are following whats is going on and it makes a different for us!

Update 30 June 2014:  Message sent to SOLUTIONS-L and SFT-L lists

I am very sorry to have to let you know that Björn Johansson died at 5.30am yesterday, Sunday 29 June 2014.  He was 48 years old.  Eva was with him at his bedside.

Eva has asked me to let you know that the both appreciated all the cards, emails and love which came in so many ways.   A humanist funeral is being arranged for Thursday 17 July in Karlstad, followed by a gathering at the Clues centre.   For those would would like to send something to Eva and the family, the address is Långmyrsgatan 8, 65469 Karlstad, Sweden

I started drafting this email to say that ‘Björn is no longer with us’.  Except, of course, that he is – in his work, his writing, his ideas, his developments, his family and in all his interactions.  Ken Gergen wrote (in his paper in InterAction Vol 5 No 1) that we carry everyone we have every met as a sort of potential – ‘relational residuals’.  Some we use more than others.  I am proud to carry Björn with me.