Kaj H Granholm

Memories by Maria (Mia) J. Granholm

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Mia-faster photo.jpg

I remember Aunt Mia Jansson very well. They lived just two houses up the hill from us. The corner house was a two story white house, and next up the hill on the right was Mia faster’s house. To the right of the white house on the corner was uncle Lennart’s house (Paul Granholm’s dad). I remember her as “Mia Faster.” Faster, in Swedish, is short for father’s sister. Mia’s birth name was Maria Johanna Granholm. She was born on the 25th of April 1891, and died on the 1st of July 1969, at the age of 78. She was married to Teodor Jansson, on the 5th of September 1911; he was born on the 18th of July 1888, and died on the 16th of December 1959. They had nine children…

I remember Aunt Mia Jansson very well. They lived just two houses up the hill from us. The corner house was a two story white house, and next up the hill on the right was Mia faster’s house. To the right of the white house on the corner was uncle Lennart’s house (Paul Granholm’s dad). I remember her as “Mia Faster.” Faster, in Swedish, is short for father’s sister. Mia’s birth name was Maria Johanna Granholm. She was born on the 25th of April 1891, and died on the 1st of July 1969, at the age of 78. She was married to Teodor Jansson, on the 5th of September 1911; he was born on the 18th of July 1888, and died on the 16th of December 1959. They had nine children…

As I read these writings by Mia Faster, I can’t help but think how life really was back then. These writings are like standing at a window looking out into the past. Our windows into the past are sometimes faded over with shades of gray by the passing of time. Look as we might, sometimes we cannot see through that faded window. We may see shades of our past; fleeting memories we try to tap into. With the passing of time those memories fade away, and unless we write those memories down just as Mia Faster did, we may also just be fleeting shades seen through a faded window of time.

As Lars noted in the words of Johanna Carolina Röring, Mia Faster’s great grandmother, our great-great grandmother, who on her death-bed gave this admonition to her daughter Charlotta C. Renlund, who was 10 at the time, “Jag arma stackars fattiga barn; så liten och ödmjuk inför Gud ville hon att hennes barn skulle bli. Och detta önskade hon också att hennes barn skulle låta gå vidare till kommande släkten.”

“I a poor, humble, wretched child, so small and humble before God, I wished that my children would also be humble before God. And that I wished that my children would have to carry on to future generations.” Mia Faster then continues, “After this wish, she then put her hand on Charlotta’s head and called down God’s blessing on her; and finally, the Lord’s blessing she prayed with her hand on her daughter’s head;” ‘May The Lord bless and keep thee, etc.’ “In this way, I, too, have partaken of this admonition [which was passed down to me through my grandmother and my mother] and pass it on to all of you.” (Quotations taken from Mia Faster’s letter about her grandmother) [clarifications, KG]

“This is what the website is about,” Lars says. What a powerful, moving scene we see through that window to the past, made all the more clearer by Mia Faster’s memories penned down so many years ago. Carolina Röring, our great-great grandmother, over 170 years ago asked that the torch be passed on to future generations for them to carry on with the journey. She knew the importance of not forgetting one’s heritage. She knew the importance of passing on the torch of remembrance. So we do. We continue that journey by looking through that window of the past while reading these following stories by Aunt Mia, and adding stories of our own. Index with links to stories in Swedish and English.…

  
    
    

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