Budd Thompson, Grönalundsgatan 7 A

S 216 16 Linhamn, Sweden

December 15, 2000

My Dear Ulf,

Warmest Season’s Greetings to you.

We had gotten accustomed to your occational – or should I say, yearly telephone call to give us your news, and it was always a joy to hear your voice once again. But what has happened? (What happened was that Ulf was diagnosed with AIDS) We have not heard from you in – I would say over two years time or even more. I have soo many telephone numbers for you in my book – none of which work – and I have written to you about a year ago to this only address I have , c/o Käthe Nieder.

But you either didn’t get it, or you refuse to reply or call! This disturbes me much and I worry if you are all right…

In that letter to you, I told you Hasse had been diagnosed HIV positive. Since that time, he has stopped writing to me, as has Jean-Marie, and as Hasse had told me you were together in our apartment in Paris – I’m worried about you. I have seen photos of Hasse in the gay newspaper from Stockholm, as he works in a well-known gay bar, and he looks alright. He is also seen in, the now famous, photos of Elisabeth Ohlson ”ECCE HOMO”, which are touring the world as an exhibit in art galleries.

Please let me have some news of you as you know you are one of my favorite people and I was always proud of the great strides you had made in your development from boy to manhood.

When we came to see you and Guy in the circus in Paris, in your aerial act on the suspended pole – I was petrified to watch you up there so high with no net or anything under you. I was not so worried about Guy, as he was suspended from an ankle strap (thank god that strap was strong), but all you had was his hands to support you and I really couldn’t look… Funny – you go to the circus and see hundreds of people flying threw the air or doing dangerous things way high up, and you don’t give it a second thought – but the moment it is someone you know and love way up there, you are terrified and can’t wait until it is over and you are back down to earth!…those were the longest 6 minutes in my life! Is it no wonder I encouraged you to do a number on the floor!

Strange – the only two photos I have of you are one with Guy, hanging down from your pole – and one other photo Göran Ljungberg gave me of you and Tom that he took of you in Stockholm when you must have been 16 or 17 yrs old. And, mentioning Tom reminds me of what he said in a recent letter…he said he did a foolish thing in sending back to you all the photos he had of you and now he regrets it very much as he doesn’t have anything to look at to remember the times you had together.

You, like Per, have promissed me photos of you, but I never receive any. Getting you to write a letter, I know, is a monumental task in itself, but couldn’t you just slip some of those very photos of you when you were that youngster into an envelope , paste the address above on it, and send it to me…please…

Of course, if this festive season could bring the goodness of your heart to send some of those photos back to Tom, I know he would be grateful.

I have enclosed photos of Gunnar and I as we planted trees – ”our” trees with our names on them – in the new Millennium Forest just outside Malmö.

We have been across the new bridge between Malmö and Copenhagen – on foot, on bicycle, by car and train. I enclose one shot of the bridge for you.

And just for the record- I’ve slipped in one of my nude shots so you can see what the Bodylife practitioner looks like at 75!

Just last night, a youngester of 65 told me he wished he had as much energy at his age as I have at 75!

There I go bragging again…

Dear Ulf, we both send you lots of love, and hope to hear from you soon.