ABSTRACT
It was in the grey vastness of the Stockholm Town Hall, where Nobel laureates, though not those of peace, are honoured, that the small lady in blue with the twinkling eyes and rosy cheeks framed by golden curls entered our lives. This paper is a personal tribute. Many years ago E.M.Forster wrote: Two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it admits criticism. Two cheers are quite enough: there is no occasion to give three. Only Love the Beloved Republic deserves that’ (Forster, 1965, 78). To be with Tove is to inhabit for a short while that ‘beloved republic’ where variety defines the richness of humanity, where criticism is the path to understanding, and where all is encompassed by a genuine love for her fellow beings, human and otherwise.
