52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 16: Storms–The Despair of Sorrow-MTIP

I am working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I’m looking forward to writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

After the death of his wife, Emil Carlson wrote this poem in his autobiography:

Emil & Wilhelmina

                It is Fall.

                Storms are raging in my breast

                shadows hang before the sun

                and hides its light.

                In vain the heart seeks comfort,

                it is Fall.

                All is lost

                which gladdened me before.

                The summer’s last rose is broken

                and hidden in the world’s bosom.

                The well of happiness has dried up,

                all is lost.

                The sun has gone down,

                the shadows grow longer and longer

                I hide myself in its darkness

                and my life’s path envelopes

                til all appears dark.

                The sun has gone down.    

His wife, Wilhelmina Nilsen Carlson, died Oct 5, 1898 of typhoid fever. It was just ten days after the birth of her youngest son, Ernest.  Not only had he lost his beloved wife, he now had to care for an infant. He already had an older son, Thure, who was two.

It was in this sadness that he had to make a decision—a decision that separated the brothers for life. Wilhelmina’s brother Johan and his wife, Ida Sophia, adopted Ernest as their own. Emil returned to Sweden, where his sister raised Thure. Two years later, he received a letter outlined in black. Johan Nilsen had died.

There was only one thing Emil felt he should do: return to America and marry the widow, Ida Sophia Nilsen. They were married nearly fifty years. 

Emil lived to over one hundred. His faith was strong. He gave service to his church, Bethany Covenant Church, as a church deacon, Sunday school teacher, and serving on the building committee. 

Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.