Then there was Sara. For a while
she dated Arne, Astor's brother, but they were just like two opposites, nothing
alike, completely different characters. Arne was a little... well ... uppity,
I'd guess we'd say. He thought he was a bit better than most. Sara was just the
opposite. Arne became a policeman and against the regular rule, he got a job in
Kisa. It's been said that a prophet is not welcome in his hometown and I think
Arne experienced that many times. They called him Fixarn. He was so distant
with people who he had known all his life. One time he caught NilsErik i
Groende riding home on his bicycle and he didn't have a light on the bike. Arne
pulled out his notebook and said, "Name? Address? Parents' names?"
Arne knew all of this as well as he knew his own. Needless to say, he didn't
gain popularity. But he later found a nice girl and got married.
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| Sara and Ingemar leaving Kisa Kyrka, newly married :) |
But back to Sara. She met Ingemar Bäck and they got on so well. He proposed and she said yes and asked Margaretha and
I to be bridesmaids. Sara and Ingemar were lots of fun together, and they had two kids, Thorbjörn and Ingalena.
 |
| Ingalena and Thorbjörn |
But to go back closer to the beginning, Sara worked in the hospital like
Brita did but she never took to it in the same way. We had an agreement between
us girls that at least one of us had to be at home to help Mother. She wasn't
strong enough to handle the farm all by herself, even though she had a pump in
the kitchen now to pump water. Well, I've told you about when Margaretha and I
worked in Kisa and we would get up and do chores and ride bicycles to work and
then do it the other way around at the end of the day. Someone in later years
sent me a poem written about Kisa and in that poem, it says, "Here come
the Boberg girls flying down Hageborsbacken, holding on their skirts with one
hand and the handlebars with the other." I thought this was a pretty good
description because of course, we couldn't wear pants to work; we had to wear
dresses and when you're coming downhill at a pretty good speed, it's easy for
the skirt to fly up, and that couldn't be allowed, so we had to hold on. When
winter came, this wasn't so easy, but then Sara was ready to come home. She had
started to date Ingemar and it was all going really well. They got on so well
and were talking about getting married. She thought if she was home she could
work on her trousseau. Then Margaretha and I rented a room in Kisa for the
winter.
Well, Sara now, when she worked at
the hospital, she got acquainted with several girls who were friends of Brita's.
One was named Inga; she married Folke i Sör. They had a farm in Smasjö for a
while and when they retired from there, they moved to Mjölby, so they saw Sara
and Ingemar a lot after they were married. One time when Sara went to visit, Folke
sent a candleholder to me. It's shaped like a girl who holds two candles and
her head was like a bluebell so we used to call her the bluebell girl.
There was one little mishap when
Sara was married. For some reason, Hugo didn't get invited. He sent a telegram saying, "Hurrah för
brudgrum! Hurrah för bruden! Jag hade kommit men blir ej bjuden."
("Hurray for the groom! Hurray for the bride! I would have come but
wasn't invited.")
First when Sara and Ingemar were
married, they farmed Ingemar's homeplace, Rankulla i VästraEneby. We knew
Ingemar well. He belonged to the church youth group in Västra Eneby, and Västra Eneby and Kisa were sister
churches. We went together in lots of things. Ingemar also belonged to the same
political youth group we did, so we were glad when he and Sara started to look
at each other. He was a great brother-in-law, kind and generous, always jolly
and able to make every day things fun. Sara and Ingemar had a neighbor named
Petterson, and Ingemar had so many funny stories about this neighbor. Every
time something new was invented, he came over to Sara and Ingemar's and said,
"Tenk va menska kan göre." This was "Think what people can
do" but in a sort of uneducated Swedish. For years, Ingemar would repeat
this sentence in this accent. He taught Elizabeth how to say it when we were
home when she was nine years old, and she'd come out with it in California at
different times.
 |
| Left to right, this is Mom's mother Elin, Ingalena, Alma Johnson, Sara, Ingemar, Mom's father Thor and Thorbjörn. I'm assuming this was taken outside of Sara and Ingemar's house at the time but I don't know for sure. Someone can let me know? :) |
Well, as time went along, they
wanted to buy a farm in the parish of Åsbo that was called Östemo. Unfortunately after a few years at
Östemo, Ingemar developed back problems and the doctor told him if he didn't
stop driving the tractor he'd never get well again. Thorbjörn wasn't old enough
to do that work, so they bought a house in Mjölby where they lived for years
and years. Ingemar began to work for the forest service. Last year, Sara and
Ingemar traded with their grandson CarlAdam Wittbeck. They moved into his
apartment and they're now very comfortable.
