Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Someone described Nobel Week as a series of “can you top this?” experiences. December 10 was a full day of such events.

The first big event was rehearsing the Nobel Prize ceremony. That is, Frank and the other laureates rehearsed marching and getting medals from the King while wives and reporters rehearsed sitting in the audience.

The part of the King was played by a very distinguished Nobel Board member–Michael Sohlman, I think–and I took several photos of the pre-event for this blog but was asked not to post them in fairness to newspapers, who had been told the rehearsal was off-limits to photos.

Then Harold drove us back to the Grand Hotel, whose fitness center serves a great salad lunch. Frank did some exercising, took a sauna, and walked to the Nobel Museum to buy more toys while the two girls and I had our hair done at the hotel…so much fun, many thanks to Morgan Johansson and his team.

Ten big black limos lined up at the Grand Hotel to ferry laureates to Stockholm Concert Hall. We rode through the twilight streets and into a courtyard illuminated by lighted torches that some pre-teen scouts were waving to welcome us.

Then, after clambering around various backstage corridors, Frank went to wait with the other laureates while I went to sit in the audience with other family. (Non-family guests, friends, and colleagues sat somewhere else.)

Frank’s Uncle Walter and Aunt Billie were already sitting down when I arrived. We had great seats, in the second row from the front. I’d already showed Frank my assigned seat that morning–#84, right in the middle. For the actual ceremony, I was sitting between our daughter Amity and the Austrian ambassador. (He was there on behalf of literature laureate Elfrida Jelinek.)

I won’t describe the ceremony–it’s 3 a.m., and newspapers will do it better. All the laureates shook hands with the king properly, and nobody forgot to do all the right bows. The music was lovely, especially a Rossini aria sung by the young Swedish soprano Susanna Andersson. (Both the Prince and the King, when I met them later on, mentioned how very much they’d enjoyed her singing.)

After the final music and formal exits, family members rush up on stage to reclaim their own laureates. I said to Frank, “Show us your medal,” and he said, “Here’s the box, you open it and show us.” Wow. So, that’s the moment the photo above is showing.