A Mother and Child Reunion

Stubby with Nanda, circa 1969. Photo courtesy Stubby

Stubby with Shaunet at right. Photo courtesy Stubby

Nanda today. Photo by Matt Otto

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More About

• Shaunet Olsson
• Stockholm

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After the Weekly profiled Stubby's exploits last summer (see "Lords of Acid," July 8), I received an e-mail from a woman who said her name was Violet, although her e-mail address identified her as Shaunet Olsson. She asked if I had an e-mail address for Stubby, or if I could give Stubby her e-mail address and ask if he wanted to contact her. I forwarded her mail to Stubby, who called back the next day to say that Shaunet Olsson was Nanda's mom.

"I hadn't heard from her in 35 years," he says. "I was really happy. I e-mailed her. It took three months before I got an answer from her."

Shaunet told Stubby she had married a Swedish man in the early 1970s, had lived in Stockholm ever since and now speaks Swedish better than English. "We really haven't communicated that much," Stubby says. "I gave her Nanda's website, but I don't think she's written him yet."

Via e-mail, Shaunet refused to share her side of the story with the Weekly. "How I ended up here in Stockholm is a long story," she wrote. "I don't think I am ready to talk about that after all these years."

Nanda has no memories of his mother and has only seen a few blurry Polaroids in his father's collection—photographs that also include his stepmother. "Most of the pictures of my mother are with my father and [his new girlfriend]," he says. "You can see my mother is glaring. I don't think there are any pictures of her smiling."

He says he's yet to hear from his mom—or to write her himself.

"I guess she's waiting to talk to me," he says. "I don't hold her responsible for leaving me, but I don't know her side of the story. It's not that I don't want to talk to her. But I'm 36 years old. What do you say after all that time?"