Authors: Camilla Ceder
Tell
was readying himself to go upstairs to do battle with the manager's equally
diligent secretary.
'And
what might that be?'
'I
heard the notes you were interested in concern the Pilgren family and their
children, Susanne and Olof.'
Tell
became interested again.
'I'm
retiring next year, but I've worked here for ever - at least that's what it
feels like,' Birgitta Sundin went on. 'I've been a social worker, dealing with
financial support,
then
I worked with adults, young
people, families with children, employment initiatives… Anyway, for the last
few years I've been a section leader. What I'm coming to is the fact that I
actually know this family fairly well, or at least I used to know them. It is a
long time ago but I was their social worker in those days.'
She
stopped speaking and looked out of the window.
'You
certainly don't remember all the children or families you work with,' she said
eventually. 'But I do remember this family very well. I don't know why.
Perhaps because they were one of my first cases.'
Tell
nodded, and the picture of Lisa Jönsson's red woollen plaits came into his
mind. He understood perfectly.
'The
first time I visited the family, Olof was on the way and Susie was three or
four,' Birgitta Sundin continued, after they had collected the notes from Eva
Andersson's filing cabinet.
'They'd
only just moved in. They came from somewhere up north originally, but had moved
around in the Stockholm area. They ended up in Gothenburg after leaving
Stockholm in a hurry right in the middle of an investigation-'
'What
kind of investigation?'
'
Social services has
an obligation to ensure that children
and young people grow up in a secure environment. If it comes to the attention
of social services, for example through a complaint, that this is not the case,
we have to start an investigation.'
She
glanced at Tell
'It's
not really my area,' he said. 'Can you tell me a bit about Olof's parents?'
She
glanced through the notes in the file where all major interventions by social
services were documented, then placed a thick bundle of follow-up notes next to
it. Together they made up a kind of chronological diary detailing all contact
with the family.
'As
I recall…' she said, and started flicking through the notes with no apparent
purpose in mind. Many of them were signed with her own initials. She placed the
pages together and rubbed frantically at her cheek just underneath the frame of
her glasses. The skin beneath her eyes was red and irritated.
'How
can I put this
…
Two weak individuals, each with their
own form of addiction, meet and have children together.'
She
gave a crooked smile but immediately became serious again.
'In
fact, Cecilia Pilgren was really easy to like. I think she had a potential that
was never realised because of her own difficult childhood. But that's the way
things are. After a while I came to realise that she simply had no good role
models. She always ended up with men who had problems. Magnus had a serious
addiction. He was violent and abused both Cecilia and the children when he flew
into a rage. Deep down I'm sure he wanted the best for his children - everybody
does after all - and during those periods when he was clean it was actually
possible to reason with him. You could see that he had a broken soul beneath
that tough surface.'
She
looked as if she were lost in thought for a moment, before shaking her head.
'As
I said, there'd been a couple of complaints about the family where they were
living before, and after a couple of unsuccessful interventions from social
services, they moved. To Solna, if I remember rightly.'
'Unsuccessful interventions?'
Tell
contemplated the two stacks of notes gloomily. They were as thick as telephone
directories, crammed with pronouncements from all kinds of professionals:
social workers, people within the judicial system, doctors, teachers,
nursery
staff. It was a long list, but what the reports had
in common was that they all expressed a deep concern for the situation of the
Pilgren children.
'The
thing is, before we go so far as to take children into care, which means
placing them in a foster home, we must try other possible means of support.'
'For example?'
'For
example, support within the home. Magnus started a course of treatment for his
addiction but didn't complete it. Cecilia was offered different types of help
too.'
'But
nothing came of that.'
'No, exactly.
The main reason was that Cecilia didn't go,
but then that isn't unusual for mothers in her situation. It's strange, but at
the same time it's understandable.'
'What
do you mean?'
'You
have to realise that even if these measures are meant to support parents by
showing them an alternative to the life they've lived so far, that support
frequently comes with a knife to the throat. If they don't accept the support
and at least turn up and show willing, they can end up having their child taken
into care anyway.'
'So
even though accepting help is supposed to be voluntary, they don't have any
choice?'
'Exactly.
That's why these parents rarely have a positive
attitude towards activities arranged by social services, and Cecilia certainly
didn't. She distanced herself, her life was chaotic, and this meant that she
constantly failed to fulfil her side of the contract. As you know, the children
were eventually moved to foster homes, and that was presumably what would have
happened in Solna too, if they hadn't moved away.'
'So
how come social services here didn't follow through what had been planned
there? They had already made an assessment, I presume?'
Sundin's
smile was slightly indulgent.
'You
might think so, and in principle that is the case. However, it isn't unusual
for this type of… let's call it a problem family to make a habit of moving on
as soon as things get a bit tough. And I'm sure they often do believe they're
going to make a fresh start in the new place, that everything will be better if
they can just get away from all the rubbish of their former life. And maybe
that's what happens, for a while, until the family structure once again starts
creaking at the seams, and a new social services team has them in their sights.'
'Or
else things really
are
different in the new place,' Tell broke in,
surprising himself with his new-found and somewhat desperate optimism.
'Hmm,
well. It would be nice to think so,' replied Sundin.
'So
you're saying that information about problem families isn't automatically
passed on to a new authority.'
'In
other words, children of these families can go through hell time after time
without anybody doing anything about it, because the family moves and the case
is
signed off.'
'Yes.'
They
contemplated this in silence for a moment.
'And
there's no kind of premise behind all this?' said Tell eventually. 'I
mean,
the idea that a person is capable of changing his
life, or that he has the
right
to do so, without being judged in advance
because of past failures?' He was thinking of Lisa Jönsson again.
'Protecting a person's integrity, that sort of thing.'
Birgitta
Sundin shook her head.
'The
premise is that we should work primarily from the perspective of the child, but
as with all large organisations sometimes people fall between the cracks.
Anyway, I came into the picture when they'd been living here for a few months.
We'd had a complaint from a neighbour of the Pilgrens about what was going on
next door, and how much bloody noise there was, if you'll pardon the
expression. Shortly after that Magnus beat Cecilia so badly she ended up in
hospital. She stayed in a women's hostel with Susie for a while and made a
formal complaint against Magnus. Then she changed her mind.'
Tell
nodded. He was familiar with this pattern.
'To
cut a long story short, we did what we could to motivate Cecilia to accept some
help. The couple separated just before Olof was born. I remember I regarded it
as a step in the right direction. She had cut down drastically on her
amphetamine use during the pregnancy. This is quite a positive report from the
assessment home.' She showed Tell a yellowing typewritten report subheaded
'Hasteviken Assessment Home'. 'If there's one time when a woman using drugs is
likely to pull herself together, it's when she's pregnant, and when Magnus
disappeared I saw it as a real chance for Cecilia.'
She
took a box of throat sweets from the top drawer of her desk.
'Unfortunately,
we often discount the father at an early stage in families such as this,' she
said. 'We tried various tactics, but after Olof was born Cecilia started using
heavily again, and she also lost her grip when it came to looking after Susie -
you can see here I've made a note about the fact that she'd stopped taking her
to nursery. She broke off all contact with both social services and the
childcare authority. If I remember rightly, Olof was about six months old when
Susie was taken into care.'
'So
the girl was taken into care but not the boy,' said Tell in surprise.
'Yes,
the judgement we made at the time was that the girl was suffering the most. It
isn't uncommon for weak mothers to be able to cope with a small baby reasonably
well, but then lose control as the child gets older. When it begins to defy her
and make demands. That's exactly how it was with Cecilia. In spite of
everything, we were prepared to give her a chance with Olof. I'm sure you can
understand how easy it is to be wise after the event.'
Her
expression became defensive.
'I
must stress that in contrast to what people think
,
we
don't take children into care unnecessarily. I don't think we do it often
enough, if you ask me. Anyway, through a combination of promises and threats we
managed to get Cecilia to accept a place in a home for mothers and children. It
was somewhere north of here - Dalarna, I think. Cecilia and Olof lived there
for a year.'
'What
are they like, these places?' asked Tell.
Sundin
didn't have time to answer the question because a knock on the door was
followed by a corpulent man in his thirties. He informed her that the youth
team was sitting in the conference room awaiting their briefing.
'Just
a moment, Peter,' said Sundin brusquely. 'I'll be finished with the inspector
shortly.'
She
glanced at her watch, but remembered Tell's question.
'The
staff at the home observe the mother and child and report continuously on the
mother's parenting ability, the bond between them, or whatever the client has
asked the home to focus on. These days most homes tailor their services
according to the client's wishes. And of course the market is getting tougher
for them too, partly because they charge a fortune.'
She
cleared her throat and leafed further through Olof s file, before closing it
with an apologetic expression.
'To
summarise, everything went well for a while. They had faith in her in Dalarna.
She was given a rented flat of her own when she moved back to town. And she did
stay off the drugs for a couple of years, even if it was with frequent intervention
and a great deal of support from social services. However, when Olof was about
five she met a new man, who was already well known to us - a complete bastard,
if you want my opinion. He dragged her straight back down again, and it
happened very quickly. When Olof ended up in A E the following year,
badly beaten and with a broken arm, he was immediately taken into care. It was
impossible to find out whether it was Cecilia or Marko who had hurt him, since
they blamed each other.'
'Where
did Olof go then?'
'First of all to an emergency placement, then to a permanent foster
home.
The family lived in Ockero, and they had many years' experience of
fostering children. Olof lived there until he was just ten, when the husband
unexpectedly died of a heart attack. His wife couldn't cope with the job on her
own.'