Post by Sabeine on Nov 23, 2003 10:21:29 GMT -5
This may be a long one...
A month ago my Swedish cousin, Svante passed away after a freak accident. A cousin of mine from the States, and her father who is related through marriage came for the funeral. Afterwards my American cousin Tory and I were talking and she and her father, Ray were going to go up to Luleå for 3 days to see some distant family that we have up there. She saw these relatives and had a great time. Tory mentioned to these people that her grandmother had grown up nearby. She then tells them about my living here, that my grandfather on my mom's side (her grandmother's brother) grew up there too. They came from a large family of 7 kids. The next day the relatives tell Tory that the house that they may have grown up was nearby. I knew about this house, because my grandfather had visited it some years before he died and was so sad to see the state it which it was in. This house was built at the turn of the last century. Apparently after his family had moved out it was sold to someone else, who lived there and financially couldn't take care of it. She died and left it to her kids, who lived in it for some time and didn't fix it up either. Then they grew tired of it, and sold it to someone else, the current owner a 60 something year old women. This woman apparently has been trying to find out the history of this house, and who had first lived in it. She wanted to restore it to it's original state. My cousin Tory and her father went to see the woman the next day. Tory told her about how many kids there were in that house and that all but one had moved to the US. Some of them stayed there until they died, but 3 moved back to Sweden. Tory said that she knew very little about the actual house, only that it existed and the names of the children that had lived there as well as the parents. Tory came back here to Stockholm and told me about this. She said it was too bad that we didn't know more about this house. I agreed and two days later Tory and her father went back to the States.
Just a few days ago I am going through some of my things. Anders had been in the States in Oct and had retrieved some photo albums that I had. Most were more recent pics like when my sister got married, and of her children etc.. but one album was of old photos when my parents got married in the 50's (they are much older seeing how I am only 32) as well as some photos of when they were younger. There were also some photos of my grandfather during the early and mid 30's when he was working in Chicago as an airplane mechanic. There is also one of him in a military uniform when he proudly enlisted during WWII to go and fight for the States. Those photos I remembered well. Then there were about 20 or so photos that I'd never seen. They were wrapped in a paper taped on the sides with my mom's handwriting that says, "Anna, take care of these". She had tucked them into my photo album. I don't know when she did this, but it had to have been after I moved here 3.5 years ago because this album was not at her place until then. She had a stroke this past Jan and cannot communicate so I won't know when she did it, but I can figure out why. She wanted me to have a part of my life, and a history to go with it. It is eerie, in a way I wonder if she knew that she had to put them inside this album because she knew that something was to happen to her? I can't help but wonder. She did know that I would find this album though, because I had told her the last time we spoke before her accident that I would retrieve this album on my next visit. I think she knew that I would never let something happen to that album. Inside the 20 or so photos are of my grandfather and his whole family standing in front of that house. There are several black and white (on hard paper) photos of them in the living room, parlor, and kitchen. Some of the kids are just babies and toddlers, and there's one of my grandfather standing next to a dog, on the back it says, "Bengt 4 år". There is also a later photo of my grandfather coming in on a boat to New York Harbor pointing to the Statue of Liberty, he is smiling and holding his hat up in the air. I cried when I saw these photos.
I called Tory and she couldn't believe it. There are also photos of her grandmother and many of the other children when they are young adults that neither of us had ever seen, or even knew exisited. I am going to be making copies of them at a special repro place that can do this for her. She contacted the women who owns the old house now, and she thinks that not only is she going to restore the exterior, but she would like to restore the living room as well, now that she will have photos to see how it looked. She also said that we're more than welcome to come and see it when it's done.
I still cannot believe how weird it was for me to find these photos that my mom had put there. Why had she never shown me them before? I'll never know the answer to that, but I can say with confidence that my grandfather is smiling somewhere. He died 10 years ago almost exactly to the day.
A month ago my Swedish cousin, Svante passed away after a freak accident. A cousin of mine from the States, and her father who is related through marriage came for the funeral. Afterwards my American cousin Tory and I were talking and she and her father, Ray were going to go up to Luleå for 3 days to see some distant family that we have up there. She saw these relatives and had a great time. Tory mentioned to these people that her grandmother had grown up nearby. She then tells them about my living here, that my grandfather on my mom's side (her grandmother's brother) grew up there too. They came from a large family of 7 kids. The next day the relatives tell Tory that the house that they may have grown up was nearby. I knew about this house, because my grandfather had visited it some years before he died and was so sad to see the state it which it was in. This house was built at the turn of the last century. Apparently after his family had moved out it was sold to someone else, who lived there and financially couldn't take care of it. She died and left it to her kids, who lived in it for some time and didn't fix it up either. Then they grew tired of it, and sold it to someone else, the current owner a 60 something year old women. This woman apparently has been trying to find out the history of this house, and who had first lived in it. She wanted to restore it to it's original state. My cousin Tory and her father went to see the woman the next day. Tory told her about how many kids there were in that house and that all but one had moved to the US. Some of them stayed there until they died, but 3 moved back to Sweden. Tory said that she knew very little about the actual house, only that it existed and the names of the children that had lived there as well as the parents. Tory came back here to Stockholm and told me about this. She said it was too bad that we didn't know more about this house. I agreed and two days later Tory and her father went back to the States.
Just a few days ago I am going through some of my things. Anders had been in the States in Oct and had retrieved some photo albums that I had. Most were more recent pics like when my sister got married, and of her children etc.. but one album was of old photos when my parents got married in the 50's (they are much older seeing how I am only 32) as well as some photos of when they were younger. There were also some photos of my grandfather during the early and mid 30's when he was working in Chicago as an airplane mechanic. There is also one of him in a military uniform when he proudly enlisted during WWII to go and fight for the States. Those photos I remembered well. Then there were about 20 or so photos that I'd never seen. They were wrapped in a paper taped on the sides with my mom's handwriting that says, "Anna, take care of these". She had tucked them into my photo album. I don't know when she did this, but it had to have been after I moved here 3.5 years ago because this album was not at her place until then. She had a stroke this past Jan and cannot communicate so I won't know when she did it, but I can figure out why. She wanted me to have a part of my life, and a history to go with it. It is eerie, in a way I wonder if she knew that she had to put them inside this album because she knew that something was to happen to her? I can't help but wonder. She did know that I would find this album though, because I had told her the last time we spoke before her accident that I would retrieve this album on my next visit. I think she knew that I would never let something happen to that album. Inside the 20 or so photos are of my grandfather and his whole family standing in front of that house. There are several black and white (on hard paper) photos of them in the living room, parlor, and kitchen. Some of the kids are just babies and toddlers, and there's one of my grandfather standing next to a dog, on the back it says, "Bengt 4 år". There is also a later photo of my grandfather coming in on a boat to New York Harbor pointing to the Statue of Liberty, he is smiling and holding his hat up in the air. I cried when I saw these photos.
I called Tory and she couldn't believe it. There are also photos of her grandmother and many of the other children when they are young adults that neither of us had ever seen, or even knew exisited. I am going to be making copies of them at a special repro place that can do this for her. She contacted the women who owns the old house now, and she thinks that not only is she going to restore the exterior, but she would like to restore the living room as well, now that she will have photos to see how it looked. She also said that we're more than welcome to come and see it when it's done.
I still cannot believe how weird it was for me to find these photos that my mom had put there. Why had she never shown me them before? I'll never know the answer to that, but I can say with confidence that my grandfather is smiling somewhere. He died 10 years ago almost exactly to the day.
