Barbro Segerfelt

Today we visit Barbro Segerfelt, more known as Babbe. She’s also my grandmother. She’s 94 years old and lives in a beautiful apartment in Nacka, close to her daughter and grandchildren.
When she invites us in, the first thing that hits our eyes is a buffet of cakes that have been prepared for our visit. She’s dressed in a light blue color from head to toe, which perfectly matches the interior in her apartment.

In Babbe’s bedroom she has a Portal shelf from Betonggruvan, she tells us that she’s happy to incorporate something new in her old home. She chose the white shelves and shelf ladders because she wanted something light.

What’s your favorite thing in your shelf?

The sculpture of the girl sewing. It’s from my childhood home and has been with me since 1925.

And the photography picturing my husband from 1946 is also very important to me. We met at a wedding, I was bridesmaid and he where best man, I basically proposed to him that night. The next day he came to my parents house where I lived and rang the door bell and the rest is history.

The big painting is a portrait of Babbe’s grandmother. She were born in 1868 and died at her 90th birthday after celebrating for two days with her family.

What kind of books do you have in your shelf?

My favourite books are my cookbooks. It’s important that I can reach them easily, because they are the ones I use the most. I really like Hiram, I have all her books and I have used them so much that they are almost falling apart.

I also have a lot of books about children psychology, since they were a part of my profession as a preschool teacher. But mostly I read biographies, like one about Astrid Lindgren.

We talk about how the use of bookshelves has changed from when she grow up. Then people didn’t fill their shelving systems with anything but books. Babbe remembers her childhood home where the walls where papered with books. Today shelves look different because people read more online and don’t buy as many books as they used to.