Morbakka

If childhood is the "bank account of a writer," then the girl Selma from the estate of Morbakka inherited a solid capital. The time spent here, the stories heard from her aunt and grandmother, became a source of impressions for her entire life. And Selma Lagerlöf's life is a great adventure: it included a miraculous healing from paralysis, a struggle for women's voting rights, a socially condemned love, and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her books are still published worldwide, a crater on Venus is named in her honor, and her portrait adorned a 20-krona bill for a long time. The adults were terribly alarmed to see a child who could not walk.

"— How will she, poor thing, live? — they said. — She will see nothing in this world, will be stuck in one place. She won't get married, won't be able to take care of herself. I swear, it will be hard for her. Everyone treated the sick girl kindly and sympathetically, and Johan and Anna did not object to that at all. But one cannot completely forget that there are other children too."