Author Archives: Donnie: An Admiring Grandson

A good portion of the inner drive perseverance it took to keep striving ahead to complete my book, My Maja A Grandson’s Tribute was to prompt a movement to remember the role of women immigrants. The more research I did to find well documented stories describing in detail how women were heroic in stepping upContinue reading “Forgotten Women Immigrants and their Lost Stories”

All my life I have lived with a deep down fascination with the lore and legends of “old country” Sweden. Memories like books added to my library have been filed in my head since birth. It is little wonder that warm and tender images of sights and sounds of an idealized place are so vivid.Continue reading “Immigrant Homesickness Nostalgia and Swedish Hiraeth”

I will always remember at Christmas traveling to Chicago’s Andersonville with mom and Grandma Maja to stock up for traditional Swedish foods from Wickstrom’s deli. Of course, no pilgrimage to Andersonville with mom and Grandma Maja would be complete without the purchase of LutFisk. (Lye Fish) No Christmas would ever be complete without the ritualContinue reading “Swedish Lutfisk: Much More than Tradition”

To think that when I die, Grandma Maja’s story might be unknown and unshared makes me sad and angry. I was sad when I visited Maja in the hospital the night before she died, July 6, 1969. I was angry that she was dying alone except for me. This tragic event was terribly important toContinue reading “Righteous Indignation and the Struggle for Naught”

Grandma Maja convinced me that the core of her idea of making an American Dream come true pivoted on motherhood. Maja was born in 1897, the sixth child of nine children brought into the world by Ida Källgren. My mother, Dolores Elizabeth Virginia Wittenstrom was born in 1924, two years after Maja landed and cameContinue reading “Shattered American Dream Mosaic”

The stories told by Maja about venturing off to America were mesmerizing. First, A few pictures of life in Sweden for Maja. For me, Maja’s Sweden as a young girl was described to be like a snow globe kind of wonderland, all year long. (Thanks to Solleftea friends for the use of vintage photos) MajaContinue reading “Going Back in Time: Maja Goes to America”

Little did I realize when reaching into discover my Swedish grandmother’s family history I would discover my roots touch the Stone Age. Very near Grandma Maja’s home town of Sollefteå I discover history older than the Vikings. Rock Art – the Petroglyphs at Nämforsen in northern Sweden

In my book about Grandma Maja growing up in Sollefteå Sweden I reminisce about Swedish log drivers as brave Vikings with gritty guts, gumption and resilience. The spirit of the timmerflotarre became an author’s metaphor to explain the essence of Maja’s Swedish GRIT. Maja had extraordinary deep down Swedish Viking grit. I discovered that aContinue reading “Search for the Essence of Swedish Grit”

Dr. Gary Axelson , Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Ret. “Deacon Don, Congratulations on completing your labor of love. You tell an amazing story of adventure and triumph, blended with tragedy and heartache. Your remarkable grandmother found a way to cope with it all and emerge with the joys of a life lived well. Hope and love, faith andContinue reading “What Critics are saying: My Maja: A Grandson’s Tribute”

Perhaps I should have titled my book about my Grandma Maja differently. For now read, My Maja A Grandson’s Tribute on Amazon beginning August 1, 2020. At the two thirds point of compiling the research and writing a tribute book about my Grandma Maja, the project came crashing to an abrupt halt. I received anContinue reading “MAJA’S SECRET VALOR”