5 minute read
Åsa Ottosson
OUTSIDE THE BOX / ÅSA OTTOSSON
the cat hero
No wonder that Åsa Ottosson is the hero of the neighborhood. She saved the lives of two cats and mended a broken heart. All with the same brilliant idea.
TEXT: SARA MARCZAK PHOTO: KRISTOFER LÖNNÅ
Åsa Ottosson
Position at PostNord:
Mail carrier in Sundsvall, Sweden. Closest colleagues: “My husband Anders Ottosson: he is also a mail carrier. That’s how we met. I was renting a small apartment and sitting outside studying when he arrived with the mail. We started talking. Turns out we both like to walk in the woods and that was how it started. Ulf Wiik: likes mountain hiking, nice style, good taste. Jörgen Johansson: cool car, cool guy. Roger Gröning: still going strong. Micke Holm: battles on, has a cigarette.”
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A LOT HAPPENS in a neighborhood in 20 years. Some houses are demolished and others built. People are born, grow up and move away.
But there is also a lot that remains. Like mail carrier Åsa Ottosson, who has been delivering mail in the same district in Sundsvall for two decades and has inevitably got to know the local residents. If a neighborhood can have a heart, she is one of those who supply it with oxygen.
“It’s a highly social job”, she says. “Sometimes I wish I had more time, but it doesn’t take long to stop and exchange a few words. It can mean so much to people, some say it’s the best time of day when I come.”
IN EARLY SPRING 2021 Åsa distributed mail as usual in Södermalm in Sundsvall. But due to the pandemic, the neighborhood's heart beat a little weaker that day. On the letters to the elderly woman who Åsa used to chat with, it said “estate”. A neighbor said that she had died of COVID-19. A sad Åsa was also told that two of the woman’s four cats would be put down in two weeks’ time. No new home had been found for them.
“I have six cats myself and thought it was abolutely awful, both for the poor cats Hasse and Gösta, but also for the deceased lady who had been a real animal lover and a dog sitter for several dogs”, Åsa says. “It felt so wrong.”
THEN SHE HAD an idea. The same neighborhood was home to a man whose cat had been missing for several months. He had told Åsa about his grief.
She phoned him and told him about the two suddenly homeless cats.
“I said, you don’t have to decide right away but he did!” says Åsa. “Just a few days later, the cats moved in with him. He is elderly and did not want a new kitten.”
ÅSA REALLY EMPATHIZED with the man and his missing cat. One winter, one of her
↑ If Åsa hadn’t found a new home for the two cats, they would probably have ended up at her place. “Yes, that was a likely scenario. My husband had said ‘no more cats now’, but I couldn’t have let them be put down!”
own cats ran away for a whole month, but suddenly one day it came back. Åsa hopes that this will also be the case here. But now he has company while he waits. If it hadn’t worked out, would you have taken care of the two cats yourself?
“Yes, that was a likely scenario. My husband had said ‘no more cats now’, but I couldn’t have let them be put down! Two of my cats were adopted by us and one of them is now my husband’s favorite.”
ÅSA, WHO WASN’T exactly unknown in the area before, has become something of a hero after her intervention. Another neighbor in the area, a journalist at Sundsvall’s newspaper, wrote an article on the story, which gave Åsa even more positive feedback. In the article, the elderly man talks about his life with his new roommates. About how he had to go and fetch them from their previous owner’s stairs on the first few days, but that he never had to carry them, they came home with him of their own accord.
Today they are at home in his apartment, just 50 meters from their old home. And he continues to keep a look out, hoping that his lost cat will come back.
DURING THE PANDEMIC, everyone got a little lonelier. Some people were completely isolated at home. Some people who worked from home told Åsa that they were jealous of her as she was able to be outside and physically active all day.
Åsa understands exactly what they meant. She herself has a Bachelor of Arts in Swedish and Nordic languages, Russian and Literary Studies and knows what it’s like to have a desk job.
“I worked as a mail carrier during the summer when I was studying at university”, she says. “Then I worked as a Swedish teacher at upper secondary school and as a reporter for several years. But I kept glancing at the mail carriers in my area. I missed my old part-time job, which is what I always liked best.”
The future is already here. We noted this in the previous issue of People by PostNord. But what will our jobs look like in 20 years? We asked four PostNord employees.
TEXT: MICHAEL KIRKEBY, MALIN DAHLBERG, TEA MANNINEN PHOTO: MORTEN GERMUND
THE LIST / VISIONS
Four thoughts on THE FUTURE
