Mama was a strong woman

Eating outside at Kjettestorp. Starting at the left, Lennart
is pouring something. Mormor Elin is at the back of the table
 next to Mom who is feeding an unknown infant. I believe
it's Brita sitting on the right and then closest to the camera
is another child I don't know.

"Mama was a strong woman. She handled her part. I think a lot about all the different kinds of work she did, and the things she had to know to do all those things. She cooked, of course, but as I’ve already described, that was no simple thing. When you think about it, we use a lot of short cuts today. We have cake mixes and dried yeast and chicken bullion and Nature’s Seasonings and all kinds of other helps. None of these existed then. And there really weren’t cookbooks then like we have today. You learned how to make something when someone taught you and mostly you kept that knowledge in your head. She didn’t even have the different kinds of tools that we’d use in the kitchen today. I remember at one point, when we were more grown, I think it was Sara who came with a potato peeler and wanted to give it to Mama. She wouldn’t use it. She said she had peeled with a paring knife her whole life and she didn’t see a reason to change that.

Mormor Elin holding Helene (I think)
after her baptism 

And it wasn’t just that Mama did all kinds of work herself. She was in charge of a large household. She had to plan -- and plan far ahead – how much of something to make and what we would eat when. She had to organize who would do what work and see that it got done.

Mama knew a lot about making fabric and clothes too. She could spin on a spinning wheel and then use that to knit or she knew how to weave on the big loom. She could sew and darn and do other kinds of repairs too. All these things took time.

Neighbors always came to her for advice. I’ve talked already about how when anyone was sick, they’d ask Mama how to help the sick person or if it was bad enough so they needed to go to the doctor. Mama had a lot of common sense I think about medical kinds of things. She understood about keeping things clean and what a difference that can make in healing.

Mama also belonged to the ladies sewing circle at church. They would meet monthly and bring their knitting or their sewing, whatever they were doing. They’d have bible study and then work on their projects. Then in the fall, shortly before Christmas, they’d have an auction where they sold all these kinds of things.

I love this picture because of the huge smile on Mom's face :)
I can't find many pictures of Mormor Elin smiling. I think
here she didn't know a picture was being taken :)

Mama was very mission-minded and liked to work for mission projects. One year it was decided that the mission group needed to work for the people right around them who needed help. There was a family where the father’s name was Ernst. I don’t remember the woman’s name. I think they had ten kids and one year, she was having a kid right at Christmas time. Mama packed a big basket of food and each of us kids had to give up one thing of our to wrap up as a present for one of the kids. Then Mama found a few other things to add in so each kid got a present. Sara and I were sent with this basket. These kids were younger than both Sara and me. We couldn’t believe the house when we got there. There were Christmas trees everywhere. They were even hanging from the ceiling. The kids said that each one of them had their own Christmas tree. We had never seen anything like it. The ladies in the church circle wanted to help this family too so they gave them some money. And guess what? Ernst, the father, went out and bought himself a pair of skis! After that they only gave her gift certificates. She could go to Anders Carlsson’s store and buy yardage or food, flour or whatever she needed. In that way, Ernst never got in on it again. Lily Carlsson, Anders’ wife, was in the same church circle so she could sort of oversee it."