Laila Møller-Josefsen, public employee for 45 years, including as a female official in the Home Rule and Self-Government, chose to move back to Narsaq in 2023 after over 30 years in Nuuk.
– Firstly, it is my children and grandchildren. And then there is nature and the silence of the city. It’s lovely. Just try to look out – the surroundings!, she exclaims, stretching her arms out towards the window of her little red house.
Laila Møller-Josefsen, public employee for 45 years, including as a female official in the Home Rule and Self-Government, chose to move back to Narsaq in 2023 after over 30 years in Nuuk.
– Firstly, it is my children and grandchildren. And then there is nature and the silence of the city. It’s lovely. Just try to look out – the surroundings!, she exclaims, stretching her arms out towards the window of her little red house.
In doing so, Laila Møller-Josefsen followed in the footsteps of her three children, who in previous years had moved with their own children back to what for them is their childhood town.
– In Nuuk, we never had time to see each other as a family. Just in the morning, my children spent an hour dropping off their children at the nursery, she says.
But apart from the fact that it is quite dusty when a car drives past on the dirt road by Laila Møller-Josefsen’s house, there is no rush hour traffic or hustle and bustle in Narsaq.
Laila Møller-Josefsen was born in Qullissat in 1953. In 1977 she moved to Narsaq with her son. Back then, the fishing industry in the area was big, she remembers. The city and business flourished.
– Everyone built, everyone was at work. The possibilities were much greater then – but during the 90s it started to go downhill. It must be the cod that disappeared, I think.
When her husband got a job in the then Home Rule in 1991, she moved with her three children and her husband to Nuuk.
A transformed city
Today it is 35 years since Laila Møller-Josefsen and her family moved to the capital. The decision to move back again began with Laila Møller-Josefsen’s children, who longed for peace and wanted to give their children the same freedom that they themselves experienced as children in Narsaq.
After retiring in 2021, it only felt natural for Laila-Møller Josefsen to follow along.
– Here in town, there aren’t that many people out shopping. Now, after I’ve moved here, I almost get goosebumps walking into Nuuk Center. It’s just about going in quickly, fixing what you came for, and going out again quickly, she says.
On June 8, 2023, after a five-day delay from Nuuk, she landed in the heliport at Narsaq and has lived here ever since. Although she enjoys it, it is a different city to which the family of ten have returned.
– When we came back, half of the blocks were shuttered – it hurts, says Laila Møller-Josefsen.
In 1977, 1,894 people lived in the town. Today, there are 1,241 residents, according to Statistics Greenland.
With the renewed defense agreement with the USA, and the prospect of an American military base being opened in Narsarsuaq, Laila Møller-Josefsen, like most others in the city, is excited about how the city will develop in the future.
– It is impossible to know, and we are concerned, she says.
– But I think we will hang around.
