Above, you can see my mother's aunt standing outdoors in front of our house. Her name was Augusta Andersson, but everyone named her just aunt Augusta. She was born in 1878, so in 1951 she was 73 years old.
I remember aunt Augusta as a very warm, considerate and generous person with a very high integrity. She gave birth to one child, a daughter baptized to Margit, who inherited her mother's very high moral qualities.
In her youth Augusta moved from Långö to Lidköping. There, she worked as a female blue-collar worker in first one industry that made matches and packed them into matchboxes. Later, she worked at the famous Rörstrand industry that manufactured porcelain articles.
This photo shows aunt Augusta, my mother Greta and me 1 year old. We are sitting outdoors of Arvid and Amanda Andersson's house. One interesting thing about this photo and in the next photo on this web page, is the house in the background. That was the beautiful big farmhouse, where Arvid and Amanda lived their lives. The house in which I myself went in and out all my childhood.
After that Arvid died in 1964, there was a dispute, whether to keep the farm in the family or to sell it. Arvid's daughter Alice demanded a sale of the farm, to get her inherited share of the money. Arvid's and Amanda's son Sven wanted not to sell, and neither did my mother Greta.
Arvid's and Amanda's farm was, however, sold sometime 1965–1966. Amanda Andersson died on March 22, 1974.
The winter 1972–1973, the big and solid farmhouse was burnt down by some scum in an insurance fraud. I will never forget that sad day, when my grandfather's and Amanda's house was burnt down! As I have been told, Amanda was protected from knowing about that tragedy. Nowadays, people live in Arvid's old carpenter workshop, that is rebuilt in to a villa.
In the front row one can see: Arvid and Amanda Andersson, Augusta Andersson (Arvid's sister), Greta Andersson (Arvid's daughter) with me in her lap, Margit Pettersson (Augusta's daughter) sitting in her husband Nils Pettersson's lap. And, standing in the back row: Birgit Andersson and her husband Sven Andersson (Arvid's and Amanda's son).
This photo was taken at a field about 75 meters from Arvid Andersson's place. Every field had a name, this one was spoken of as “Gustafalycka”. In English as: Gustaf's tiny field. Because, once Gustaf Andersson (1843–1929) had lived next to that tiny field. Some stones from the house where he and his family had lived was the only visible sign of him during my childhood.
Hugo had the camera placed on a tripod with the self-timer set to take the photo. The colors in this photo were applied afterwards by hand. In this photo I am 2 years old, my father Hugo is 44 and my mother Greta is 42 years old.
My father Hugo Andersson at work in our forest. The last photo on this web page shows him taking a pause in his hard work, to smoke a cigarette.