Publication Date: August 19, 2025
Edith has Alzheimer’s. The idea that she will someday forget her son, her life, even her self, plagues her constantly. So there is something important she must do beforehand: she has to find Sven, the love of her life she was supposed to meet on a bus bench twenty-seven years ago and run away with.
Her son, Blade, is struggling to keep an eye on her. His mother’s full-time caregiver, he resents the fact that he gave up most of his life to look after her. But what wouldn’t he do for his mother? Track down her decades-old flame before her mind fails her? Sure, he can do that.
Sophia is fiercely working to keep her business afloat. Her uncle left his flower shop to her and her brothers after he died, and she needs to show her family that the business is worth saving. So when an opportunity comes along that takes her all over Sweden, she can’t say no.
While Edith is desperately trying to hold on to her memories, she discovers friendship as she sits daily at the bus stop. While Blade is out looking for Sven, he learns to embrace his relationship with his mother more fully. While Sophia is fighting to keep her dream alive, she comes to terms with the therapies that were forced upon her in response to her autism diagnosis. Life is happening all around them, and like in life, there’s always still good to be found.
Ally Zetterberg has created lovable, sympathetic characters in The Second Chance Bus Stop. Telling this story from the point of view of both an adult with autism and a single mother with early-onset Alzheimer’s is uniquely human.
Edith is a 65-year-old who is three years into her Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Her son, Blade, has quit his job and is her carer. How can he not? His mom has cared for him without the help of a spouse for 29 years. One of the challenges of her care is that his mom insists on waiting at a bus stop each day, waiting for a long-lost love. His mom has one last request, that he go to Sweden and find the man that she has spent 15 years hoping to find. He has little to go on but realizes that his mom’s memory is fading, and the time to help her piece together clues to heal her heart is literally fading fast.
As Blade starts this undertaking, things don’t go smoothly, as is evidenced by his first stop being a stranger’s funeral. Oddly, this is where the fun begins! He meets Sophia, who is a florist and is facing an undertaking of her own. This is an extraordinary “meet cute”. She must start to accept clients wanting big floral affairs if she wants to save her business. But ordinary tasks are bigger issues for Sophia because she navigates challenges connected to her autism.
How these characters come to connect is both plausible and unconventional. Edith and Sophia both have challenges, which are often approached in writings with a distress that leaves little room for hope or humor. But this novel is full of love and strength.
Don’t underestimate the power of women! Ally Zetterberg’s characters do not let Alzheimer’s or autism keep them from moving forward in life. The Second Chance Bus Stop gives an authentic voice to the struggles faced and the joys found within these medical conditions. 
Ally Zetterberg is a British-Swedish writer. She spent ten years working internationally as a fashion model before turning to writing. Being neurodivergent herself and the mother of a child with Type 1 Diabetes, she is passionate about creating relatable characters and representing those living with medical conditions in her work. She speaks four languages and does her best not to muddle them up.
