Porgy Salaming fell asleep.
At his side was older brother Stig, 75.
— the acclaim has been great, but Porgy’s loss certainly won’t diminish. Stig says it’s the same little brother I really miss.
Yesterday at 11.45 Porgy Salming took his last breath. He was 71 years old and slept at home surrounded by his family and older brother, Stig.
It had already been decided that Stig would go from his home in Gävle to Stockholm on Thursday for Christmas dinner in the evening. He also planned to meet with Bureh during the afternoon.
But in the morning the phone rang:
– It was Pia (Pureh’s wife) and she said she was in a hurry. I managed to get there by 11:00 and 45 minutes later he took his last breath, Stig says.
Did you manage to communicate with Börje anything?
– No, he just lay there panting. He fell asleep somehow, lying and breathing heavily. I tried to speak but I don’t know if he heard. Of course I tried to say a few well chosen words and hoped he could take it in.
It took less than four months from the time Porgy Salming was diagnosed with ALS until he could no longer take it.
Notice: three weeks maximum
When older brother Stig returned home from Stockholm last weekend, after Thursday’s hockey party, he and the family received clear information from doctors regarding Porgy:
“Not more than three weeks,” they said when I left there last Saturday. Now it came in a week. Things have gone downhill since his return from Toronto. Yes what can you say? It is heavy and empty.
But you felt the ending was beautiful and dignified?
– Yes, we had to say goodbye in a nice way. Despite all the misery, we got it anyway.
Stig was also the one who informed Mother Karen in Kiruna that Porgy had fallen asleep.
– I have some relatives who came to her house before we told them how it was. Stig says she didn’t need to be alone at that moment.
During the last weeks of his life, Börje Salming managed to gain solid acclaim both in Toronto and during the Hockey Gala.
– Number one, it was Börje’s will to escape. He did exactly what he wanted to do and it’s great to be able to do it in such a nice way. He is so lovable and lovely with all due respect. It is not possible to get more honors than Börje has.
I’ll try to go to the Christmas party
But the closing tributes do not mitigate the grief and loss:
– I can’t say that. For Porgy, I think it’s great how they handled it, but that doesn’t help me as a person. Porgy’s absence certainly won’t diminish. But he is the same little brother that I really miss.
It’s been just over a year since Stig Salming lost his life partner, Lena, who passed away on October 25, 2021.
-Maybe you can have a more fun year. But that’s life, as someone said. Life has its own way and it contains these things between cycles. But they are heavy…or they are heavy when they approach each other with illnesses and miseries.
Stig spent the night in Stockholm, but when Sportbladet spoke to him, he went home to Gävle.
And in the evening there is a small bright spot:
– I’m actually going to a concert. Christmas party with Sissel Kyrkjebø that has been planned for a while. I got tickets for it when I turned 75. I’m going with a couple of friends who are great musicians, they invited me to their house for dinner before a concert. I was going to sit here alone and get tired, but now I’m going to the concert instead.