My Trails into the Past

This is my second year 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 have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways. This week before Mother’s Day is appropriate for talking about my second mother, Thelma Marie Nilsen Gorrell, my mother-in-law. She was the oldest daughter of Arthur Nathaniel Nilsen and Agnes Hilma Carolina Lundquist. Four brothers were born before her, one brother after her, and then three sisters, one who died as an infant. So being the oldest daughter, a lot of responsibility fell on her that did not fall to her older brothers. Inside work was “women’s” work. Her mother was weak and bedridden. Because of her  mother’s sickness, Thelma took care of many household chores. At the age of ten, it was Thelma who found her mother had passed away. She had to go to the neighbor’s home to get help. ...