Gunnel with Her iPad in front of her house in Jönköping, Sweden

For Gunnel Ottoson,

…who, at the age of eighty-five, found me on the internet and sent me an email on her new iPad while sitting in her home in Jönköping, Sweden. Here she is in front of her home with that iPad in 2015.

 

I answered Gunnel's email, almost afraid to believe it could be true. After some deliberation and information sharing, the decades-long break in communication between the Swedish and American sides of the family was restored.

My sister, Kris, and I had the privilege of being guests in her home during my first visit to Sweden in 2015, and Gunnel arranged a couple of days to meet her family and more cousins, participate in Midsummer activities, and explore the farm where John, and his brother, Anders (Gunnel’s grandpa), and their siblings were born and raised. I visited her once more in 2017, and she answered many of my questions about John’s early years and the part of the family who remained in Sweden. What an unforgettable part of my family history journey that was! She didn’t get to see the book published, but she read drafts of some of the stories before she died in 2024. Our emails and conversations, assisted by her children because of the language barrier, are much of the reason I’m able to finish this book today.