I Jesu Namn

"I think I’ll talk a little bit about our religious training. I’ve always believed

This is the church in Kisa where Mom and her family

attended when she was a kid. Many generations have

baptized, married and buried in this church.

in God. We were taught as long as I can remember about God. At mealtimes, for example, before we ate, we always said, in unison, “I Jesu namn, till bords vi gå. Välsingna Gud den mat vi få. Amen.” It means, “In Jesus’ name, we go to the table. God bless the food we receive.” Then when we were finished eating, also in unison, we said, “God är Gud. Tack för maten. Amen.” “God is good. Thank you for the food. Amen.” Then we went to Mother and Dad, and the girls curtseyed and the boys bowed, and we shook hands with both Mother and Dad and said thank you for the meal. 

The other daily thing was that there was always some adult there to say evening prayers with us. Sometimes in the summer, they worked late in the fields. If rain was approaching and they were harvesting, Mother and Dad might be out working very late, but there was always some adult in the house with us. Often it was Hildegard. Our evening prayer was, “Gud som haver barnen kär, se till mig som liten är. Vart jag mig i värden vänder, står min lycka i Guds händer. Lyckan kommer. Lyckan går. Den Gud älskar lyckan får. Amen.” “God who loves the little children, look after me who is so small. No matter where in the world I go, my happiness is in God’s hands. Happiness comes. Happiness goes. Those who love God will find happiness. Amen.” Then afterward, Hildegard taught us to say, “Dear Jesus, forgive me my sins of today and help me to be a good girl or good boy (whichever it was) tomorrow.”

Thor Boberg was a Kyrkovärdar, church elder. He's at the
bottom of the photo here helping take the offering.

We didn’t get to church every Sunday and the closest Lutheran church didn’t have any Sunday school. When I tell you about the preparations it took to go to church, you’ll see why we didn’t get there every Sunday. Papa and Mama and Ragnar could ride bicycles but Midi and Hildegard never learned how. And babies or very little children couldn’t go on a bike either. This meant that for all of us to get to church, we needed to go with horse and wagon. First on Sunday morning, like every other morning, we had to take care of the chores in the barn. Feed the cows and pigs and chickens and horses and see that they had water. We had to milk the cows and feed the calves. All of this took at least an hour, maybe an

Thor Boberg taking offering.

hour and a half, depending on how many people were helping. Then you had to get the horses ready. You had to brush them until they shone. Then they had to be put in front of the wagon. We usually had a wagon with two horses and a tongue in between. Then it was a long way to Kisa, seven kilometers. It took an hour by horse and wagon. (end of tape two) 

We stopped before we got down to church and put the horses in a stable

This is a photo from Thor Boberg's funeral,
January 2, 1966

owned by an older couple. They charged a little bit. Dad liked to have the horses by themselves, not with a bunch of other horses. This old couple was named Samuelsson and when we were little kids Mrs. Samuelsson always came out with cookies. Then we walked down to church. When I was a little, church lasted two hours. Then we had to do everything in reverse. We walked back to the Samuelssons and harnessed the horses to the wagon again and drove home. The horses and harness and wagon had to be put away and then it was just about time for evening chores. You can see it almost took all Sunday to get to church."