Sara and Ingemar

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.

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.