[Lifestyle] Book About hope, optimism and perseverance when faced with adversity – My Maja: A Grandson’s Tribute by Dr Donald Grossnickle
In one of the letters he reflects on the scarcity of published material about single, educated Swedish women emigrating to America. My research failed to help me find Swedish immigration stories of professionals and well-educated women such as what I know about you. Your profile as a nurse coming from a rather wealthy family is not well described with details sharing stories of how you came and adjusted to life in America. […] Despite all my research I never really found any literature that describes an immigration story quite like yours.
By Peter Berlin
T
his is a book about resilience and the ability to adapt to challenges. Marie (Maja) Källgren arrived in America in 1922 as a single, cheerful 25-year-old. She came from an upper-class family in Sweden and could afford an upperclass ticket on the ship that brought her from Gothenburg to New York. Unlike her fellow passengers in steerage, she was allowed to skip the gruelling immigration process on Ellis Island and proceeded directly by train to Chicago. There she met a first-generation Swedish-American, Carl Oscar Wittenstrom, who was to become her husband. So far so good. After she passed away in 1969, Grossnickle discovered in her daughter’s attic a trunk of the sturdy kind that emigrants from Sweden used to ship their personal belongings to the New World. The trunk contained a goldmine of biographical information about Maja’s life, including sadder episodes which she had withheld from her grandson during their many chats. These memorabilia served as an important inspiration for Grossnickle’s book. The author learns that dark clouds began to pile up on her horizon. Her firstborn child died shortly after
birth. In 1929 the Great Depression hit America overnight, forcing her husband to eventually close his business. He died of a heart attack in 1932, leaving Maja alone to raise their three surviving children. As a widow and single mother, she found a nursing job and worked night shifts to sustain her family. Faced with so much adversity, she suffered from deep depression and was committed to an asylum. She recovered, only to attempt suicide a decade later. A stranger found her lying unconscious on the ground in a cemetery and had her brought to a hospital. Once again she recovered, found her inner strength and began entertaining her young grandson, the book’s author, with stories about the happy times in her life. As a literary device, the author includes several letters he wrote to his grandmother long after she died.
Grossnickle seeks to ascribe heroic virtue to his grandmother’s resilience and document his admiration for her Swedish grit. In another letter to his grandmother, the author offers the following dedication: Well, dear Grandma, I will have to wait until our heavenly reunion to share more memories and share our face-to-face sweet love again. It is so clear that the memories, the traditions have not faded with time. Your memory is fully alive. My Maja: A Grandson’s Tribute makes for a suspenseful and inspirational read. The book is 160 pages and independently published in July, 2020. It is available Dr Donald Grossnickle on Amazon.
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Swedish Press | November 2020 21
