there are two stories I have heard most often from relatives anywhere I go in Sweden.
1. When my great-grandmother Linnea was around my age, she left her family and small town in Hannabad, Sweden to go to America. Like so many immigrants of that era, she was leaving poverty to seek opportunity. She arrived and lived subsequent years in New York City, always remembering to send back money and boxes of gifts and treats to her family back in Sweden. It is this money and these gifts that are still mentioned by so many family members here that I meet while traveling around Sweden. The money 'Aunt Linnea' sent back to her family helped pay for and was the reason her brother Yngve was able to go to school. The boxes 'Aunt Linnea' would send around Christmas always had treats and clothing that her nieces would love and appreciate. Whenever I hear this story of my great-grandmother Linnea I am proud and amazed to be related to someone so brave and loving, and also reminded of so many friends I have now who are living the same life that she did. They've just come from a different part of the world.
2. In 1957 my grandfather, Lennart, and my grandmother, Carol, were newly married, and they made a trip back to Hannabad to visit. Being newlyweds, this was the first time many of Lennart's family in Sweden had met Carol. This visit always evokes two major threads from any of the family still here in Sweden. Everyone remembers Lennart during this visit having a very large, very full beard; a beard that his mother distinctly disliked. Everyone here also, always remember how beautiful Carol was and is. I have always thought of my grandma as a very beautiful, very classy lady, but I was a little surprised the first time (of many) during this trip around Sweden to hear how people--Birgit, Evelyn, Anita, Irene...--everyone loved Carol when she first came to Hannabad. She was 'beautiful like Grace Kelly.' She was 'a princess.' She was 'so classy' and someone that these girls 'looked up to and wanted to be just like.' My grandma was/is one stylish (foxy) lady. [As a side note, whenever I show anyone here pictures of my family now, everyone begins to say the same thing about my mother, Linnea. I'm just hoping this particular trait of beauty and class will continue to pass itself on in the family... :)