bloody good luck

Bloody good luck is the phrase that gives shape to David Zetterberg’s gratitude for his marriage to Eva Zetterberg: not a claim that life is always happy, but a conviction that remains beneath its worst periods.

Meaning and Context

After ten years of marriage, hardly a day passed without David looking at Eva and thinking how fortunate he was. The phrase is presented as an underlying recognition rather than a denial of hardship. There are black days, and sometimes weeks without joy or even the prospect of it; in those stretches, the sense of good fortune may be obscured, but it has not vanished.

The Placard Image

David imagines a placard bearing the phrase at the bottom of the surrounding murk. He cannot always see it in the moment, yet it eventually resurfaces. The image makes the expression a private marker of continuity: temporary despair clouds his gratitude without overturning it.