2024 #52Ancestors, Week 25: Storyteller

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Sometimes you are lucky enough to happen upon the musings of a relative who did more than simply record the births, marriages, and deaths of family. That information is, of course, important, but it's really just the skeleton of a person's existence. The rest - muscles, skin, organs, etc, if we maintain the body metaphor - is made up of experiences and stories. What did they do for a living? How did they feel about their in-laws? What did they do for enjoyment?

My great grandma Lena's sister, Cecilia, was a storyteller of sorts, and she left a handwritten account of her family's emigration from Sweden and their early experiences in America. Some of her recollections were simple, single-sentence memories like, "One day I came home from school with my slate, and our maid sat down on it and broke it." It makes me wonder why this was a memory that stuck with her. Were slates expensive? Had Cecilia been warned not to set her slate down where someone might sit on it? I don't know the answer, but I do know she felt it was a story worth recording.

Many of her memories centered around church. She wrote of one experience that evidently also became a core memory for one of her acquaintances. In church, "Our parents would tell us to sing...loudly. So one of my early Christmases, Mae Ecknall and I were to sing together “Sjöng sjöng du litta skärra.” Well, she pronounced the word differently than I did as some do here. We surely did sing both a little differently. To this day, Mae has never forgotten and mentions it every year on her Christmas card when we sang together in Sunday School in our dear little church her parents also being charter members which makes Lebanon more dear to us living in the memories."

She also told of the difficulties of starting over in a new country. She observed that, "Mother was very lonely leaving her sisters back in Sweden. No doubt Father was also sad at heart, but he had to make the best of it...It was a big letdown for both coming from their childhood. At home [Sweden] were friends and relatives. There were a lot of social affairs, and they were in the height of it all. So life has its smiles and tears, ups and downs."

And then, of course, there are the stories that show us just how much times have changed from 100 years ago. Cecilia related that her husband, Rudolph, went out to get the paper one morning, and, "coming back, he said he paid $5.00 on a lot. The ball park was laid out into lots and it was here we built...the house now where I live." Imagine walking out to pick up your paper one morning and returning with real estate! Such a task can take months today. And we won't even discuss the $5 price tag...

These little anecdotes gave me glimpses into Cecilia's life and the lives of her parents and siblings. It helped me to imagine their day-to-day existence...which is the gift of every storyteller.