Wednesday 31 August 2011

Bravo, December 1977: A Sunday's child for Anna and Björn

Stockholm, in the night to Sunday, the second Advent: Björn is awakend from his sleep when Anna shakes his shoulder: "I believe the time has come. We have to go to the hospital. The baby is coming."
Björn jumps out of his bed, gets dressed and also helps Anna getting dressed - like so many times the last few weeks of her pregnancy - because she can barely bend over anymore.
A suitcase packed with the most important necessities has been readily waiting in their home for days already. Because the child should have been born fourteen days ago, according to the doctor's calculations.
The couple drives to the hospital Danderyds Sjukhus in the North of Stockholm. For days, a room has been reserved there for the blonde ABBA singer. Björn: "I only had one thing on my mind: hopefully we're not too late. Hopefully we will get to the hospital in time."
Björn and Anna made it. But then their patience was severely tested again. Not until 9.00pm on Sunday, the second Advent, the baby is born. There are no complications.
"I was more nervous than I am when I'm working on a new album," Björn insists, who preferred to wait in the hallway during the delivery." Either way, this time I didn't sweat as much as I did in 1973, when our first daughter was born."
About ninety - for him nerve-racking - minutes go by before Björn can see his son for the first time. The child is healthy, weighs 3750 gram at birth, has dark hair and blue eyes. But this can all change because all children have blue eyes at birth.
Seven days later, Anna and her son are allowed to leave the hospital. They haven't decided on a name for the son and heir yet.

Anni-Frid and Benny are also glad that everything has worked out so well. Because now ABBA - that had to take it slow because of Anna's pregnancy - can get back to work in full force again. Björn: "In 1978 we want to go on tour in America and we have to prepare ourselves for that now. We will most likely come to Germany too. We will have to see if we can fit it into our schedule."
The ABBA movie had its premiere in Sydney and Melbourne on December 16 (most scenes were filmed in Australia). But none of the ABBA members took part in that - instead the quartet was represented by manager Stig Anderson.
The German ABBA fans will probably get to see the movie too in 1978 - according to Björn the negotiations with a German rental company are almost concluded.
But that's far away in the future for Anna. In these days before Christmas, their love and affection is completely devoted to their baby. "It's the most beautiful gift that I can imagine," she beams...

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