This August made 40 years since my husband first landed at Oslo Fornebu airport, he was here on an assignment from his Indian company in 1986. He spent the first months in Norway, getting to know how things worked and meeting up with friends and family of people he knew back in India.

One of these people happened to be a Goan from Bombay who mentioned that the St. Francis Xavier feast (on the 3rd of Dec) was celebrated by the Norwegian Goan Association on the first Saturday in December. He arranged with someone from the association to drive my husband to this event. This happened to be the first of many drives with Noel over the years. https://francesdsilva.com/2024/11/04/my-first-visit-to-norway/

Noel was an electrical engineer and had just retired when my husband met him. His wife has passed away a year earlier. He lived in the home they had built together and kept things as his wife Astrid had them. He was a fountain of knowledge and a keen biologist. He often invited us on a drive to Tjøme and Verdens ende, Lyngør, Risør and even Køje in Denmark to visit close friends. On walks and drives with him we learned to appreciate the seasons and the outdoor life in Norway.

As the years passed and our eldest son was born, Noel was like family to us. He would often drop over for a meal or for a cup of tea and some snacks. It was lovely to see him interact with our boys, down on the ground playing with them on their mat, or enjoying ice creams together in the summer.

Often we had dinner at Noel’s place with poached cod, potatoes, melted butter and a salad. If we dropped in during the day, Noel made pancakes with ‘lashings of sugar and lemon’ as he would say.

This picture is from Noel’s garden, when he was pruning the trees in the autumn. His little helper, our eldest son, was trying to clear away the branches with a rake that was too big for him to manage 🙂