Introducing: Dr. Don Grossnickle-Grandma Maja’s Grandson
Welcome to Grandma Maja’s place of honor. Here you will witness how I do my best to pay honor to a very special lady who distinguished herself through surviving the Great Depression years with valor and distinction.
My role in this place is to share a shorter version of a book that I have written about my beloved grandmother. Since I am 71 years old and have been diagnosed with late stage congestive heart failure I am seizing the opportunity to leave behind a visual legacy of Maja Kallgren Wittenstrom who lived and loved from her birth in 1897-until her death in 1969.
Grandma Maja was a special lady and soon you will see in word and via a great collection of images why she qualifies as someone you too will appreciate.
Grandma Maja did not have an easy life. She became a young widow in 1932 at the age of 35. She and the grandfather, I never met, Carl Oscar Wittenstrom had three great children. My mother, Delores, was the first of their children and along came, Peter and then Linnea. Carl Oscar died of a fatal heart attack in 1932 during some of the most terrible times in American History. Dealing with his grief, Grandma Maja had to begin her journey of dealing with extraordinary trauma.
How Maja dealt with the drama involved a reoller coaster ride of good times she forged with the children and many logjam crisis she faced as a single mother breadwinner who would lead her family out of the shipwreck times that knocked her down many times. In the end, well, now, that is what you and I will discover in this site. How did she manage?
Grandma Maja inspired me to become a teacher, school administrator, father, husband, college peofessor and ordained minister in the Catholic Church. She inspired me to become a missionary serving the people of Uganda East Africa doing combat with malaria fever.
As a grandfather myself now, I appreciate the role Grandma Maja played even more. Grandma taught many life lessons in the 21 years that we shared this planet. I am delighted that you have found this site and together we can reveal the depth of personality and character of this great lady who leaves behind a powerful story.
Maja's Blessings 