Category Archives: People

Birthday Card from Grandma Green

People, Writing,

Sometime after 1981 I drove from Pittsburgh to Shorewood, Illinois to spend a few days with my Grandma Green, then drove up to Elgin to spend time with my parents. I brought my cat, Cinder.

While with Grandma we reminisced about old times and ate Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (R) with tuna fish. We also played cribbage and drank banana milkshakes like we used to do when I’d visit her in Chetek.

She sent me this card for my birthday that year with the following message:

Dear Dona!

It was so nice to have you with me for just those few days.

I am sorry, but gift will not be ready for your birthday. How about for Christmas?

Having a bit of trouble finding the right kind of fabric.

I am not positive what she means by material. I don’t recall her making anything for me for my birthday or Christmas.

…who is loved so very much!
Have a wonderful birthday!
With love — 🙂
Grandma and John

Birthday card from Grandma 1980

People, Things

I was 24 and had recently gotten back together with my husband-to-be. We spent a week in Chetek, Wisconsin, my grandmother’s house/cabin — she was living in Illinois at the time. For my birthday she sent me this card with the message on the back:

Hope you enjoyed yourself in the quiet of the lake, squirrels, birds and bees. ((it was what the British call a “naughty getaway” so I wonder if the birds and bees comment was intentional))

Dona!
…and that makes it importont to those who love you!
Happy Birthday, Dear
With Love, Grandma Green and John

Nielsen Family Photo

People,

This photo has always seemed sad to me, but I recently found out more about it and it made it even more sad.

It was taken in Denmark less than a year before they emigrated to the United States. In the back my great Grandfather Kristian is holding Elna. She was very sick and died shortly after this photo was taken. A cousin on Facebook thinks it was from leukemia, but I seem to remember my grandmother telling me her sister died of diabetes.

On the right, my great Grandmother Anne Marie is holding a baby that, apparently, at the time of the photo was not yet named. After the original Elna died, they named the baby Elna. (Also according to the cousin on Facebook). In the front, on the left, is Antonie (Toni), then Harry, then my Grandma, Emily, on the right.

No one in this photo looks happy and now I know why. I only wish I knew more.

I wish I knew more about their reasons to move to the United States. I think a brother may have been here, but I might be mixing that up with another branch of my family tree.

As I mused in the post about the circus folk who owned the inn my great grandparents ran: Were they out of a job and needed to move somewhere more promising or did they decide they needed to move somewhere more promising which caused the circus and inn owner to quit the circus and run the inn?

Note that the spelling of Nielsen is different depending on what family tree you look at and what census record you view. I am pretty sure Nielsen is correct based on my grandma’s record of baptism.