Ane Marie - Chapter VI

The Death of Alma Maren Juliane

Ole did not love fishing, but he would do it, could do it because of his love for Ane Marie and his girls, “Sophie” and “Alma”. So, week after week, he would force himself to get back on the ship and sail into the harsh weather of the North Sea. The endless days of being tossed up and down with the cold and wet environment ate at his spirits.

The alcohol came with the depression. Most fishermen drank heavily, both at sea and when at home. Many of them spent their share of the fishing haul before they left the docks.

But Ole also loved to perform in front of an audience. He learned to be a ventriliquist and a dancer. He started delaying his long walk home so that he could stay in town to work with the local showmen. It started before Sophie was born. Some times he almost had to be dragged from the stage.

Just before their third daughter was born, Ole and Ane Marie moved to a small room in town. It was very crowded in the loft. They told themselves that it would be better if they had their own place. In some ways it was, but it left Ane Marie alone to raise the girls. And it also made it easier for Ole to spend more time with the troupe of performers he became part of.

Every couple of days Ane Marie and the girls would walk back to Grandma and Grandpa Oleson’s house to spend a day or two. Then they would go and spend a day with Grandma Andreasen. And then they would walk back to the town to wait for Ole.

Then one day ashore, he made as much money in a couple of hours as he had made during the last week long stint on board the boat. The next day he told the captain that he was not going out because his wife and children were sick. He stayed home, but that night he was on stage performing and then backstage with the cast. His antics were loved by his fellow performers and he was convinced that he could make as much money doing what he loved as he could make doing what made him wet and miserable.

And, for a while, he did.

But, like fish, audiences come and go and a performer, like a fisherman, must travel after them with his troupe from place to place. On March 22nd, 1879, he was in Kalundborg, a fishing village sixty miles away, when his third daughter, Amanda Petra Andreasen was born in Usserod. It took him two weeks to find out and another three days before he arrived at their apartment.

There was no one at their apartment. He turned around and walked out and headed for his mother’s place across town.

They weren’t there, either.

Ane Marie and the girls were still at her parents' home when he arrived. His Sophie saw him first.

“Daddy!”, she screamed, as a precocious three year old would do.

“Hello, sweetheart. How’s Daddy’s little mermaid doing?” He swung her up to his shoulder and perched her there, steadied by his right hand.

“What did you bring me?”

Just then Ane Marie came through the door, carrying his newest daughter. "I’ll have to look. Hang on a moment while I say hello to your baby sister.” Quickly he took Sophie off of his shoulder and set her down on the ground.

“Hi, Ane Marie. Wow! You look wonderful!”

He walked quickly to the porch. “And she’s so big already.”

Ane Marie had been prepared to scold him for not being there when the baby was born. The night before she had been frightened, but she had already made it to her parents home and then everything happened so fast and her mother and his mother and Kjerstine and Juliane had all been there to help.

She had convinced herself that what he was doing was important and that he did provide for her and the children.

She had Papa send messages to all the fishing villages around the island, but still, he had not come. When the second week went she was concerned that he wasn’t coming, that he had found someone else, that she and the children were a burden that he had thrown off.

And then he came up the steps, hand in hand with little Sophie, and all was forgiven. “Her name is Amanda Petra Andreasen. Your mother recomended the Petra because of all her red hair. Do you like her?”

“Like her? I love her! Here, let me hold her.” Ole took her in his arms and was about to place her against his shoulder and chin when the baby spit up on his shoulder. “Don’t worry about that. I am used to it.”

Ane Marie handed him a rag to place on the shoulder so he could hold little Amanda. “She’s chunky. This is going to be a big girl. It’s a good thing I signed up with Johansen. This one is going to eat us out of house and home.”

“Johansen? When did you see him?”

“The boat’s been in repairs for weeks and he was looking for a crew. When I didn’t find you and the girls at home I passed the dock on the way to my mother’s. The skipper saw me and we talked for a few minutes. He’ll be getting underway in three days.”

“But the show? I thought that you hated fishing. Why would you go back out?”

“Well, I don’t hate eating and sleeping in doors and it’s obvious that this little girl is not going to survive on mother’s milk alone.”

“Besides, Johansen’s boat has always been lucky for me. We will make enough to last us through the winter. Who knows? The show may be back in town by then and I can join them again next spring.”

Though they both really wanted to go back to their own apartment, he left Ane Marie and the three children at his mother-in-law’s when he went back to town and the ship. The plan was that he’d be gone ten days and then he’d come back and take his wife and daughters home again. The trip was lucky and they hauled in enough cod in eight days to fill them to the scuppers.

As soon as Ane Marie saw him coming up the hill, she yelled to the girls playing in the yard. “Look girls! Daddy’s back.”

As they turned from their play they both screeched with glee and jumped in the air. “Hi, girls!” Both girls ran to him to be picked up. “How’s my Sophie? Alma, how are you doing?” He turned from one to the other, “I missed you two, Give me a kiss.”

“Oh, Daddy, you smell like fish!”

“That’s what I brought for dinner. It’s fresh. I caught it this morning.”

The summer passed quickly as Ane Marie cared for her husband and children. Their apartment grew smaller and smaller, but still, it was their home. Ole would be home for a few days and then the ship would set sail again to try its luck at finding the schools of fish that would feed the hungry citizens of Europe. He’d be gone for anywhere from 5 days to three weeks.

While Ole was on one of his longer trips, Ane Marie and the girls went to visit her brother Rasmus and his wife. The four of them trudged up the road from town on a warm summer morning. They were greeted by Rasmus and Ane Kjerstine and their three children. There was five year old Ole Peter, two year old Maren Sophia and three month old Bodil Johanne, called Hannah by everyone.

They were living in the home that Ane Kjerstine had lived in all her life. Her brother Peder had gone to the great west of America, leaving Ane Kjerstine and her brother Hans to care for the family farm. Rasmus and Hans worked the fields every day to grow feed for the cows. They awoke every morning to milk the cows. Then one of them would take the milk into town to sell it.

“How long has he been out this time?” Ane Kjerstine asked, speaking about Ole.

“Only two days. But his last three trips took three weeks and they were only home for two days between each trip. He looks so tired.”

They were interrupted by five year old Peter, “Mommy! Look at this frog I caught in the creek. Can I keep it?”

“As long as you share it with your cousins.”

“Ok!” and off he went to show the girls his treasure.

“He’s growing up so fast. What are you feeding that boy?”

“Don’t worry. Your girls will all grow big and strong. I want Peter to be bigger before we take the trip to America. It’s a long trip to Zion. Did I tell you that I got a letter from Peder and Petrine?”

“No. What did they say?” Ane Marie’s curiosity was real. There was so little news from the people that had left and gone to the Americas. Every scrap of news was shared with everyone you knew.

“Here, you hold Hannah while I climb up and get it.” She , gently passed her baby to Ane Marie’s open left arm, Alma already being in the crook of Ane Marie’s right arm. Ane Kjerstine climbed the ladder to her bedroom. “Here it is.” She waved the letter as she climbed down and once again took Hannah. She sat down.

“Dear Ane and family, first, we are all well. We heard that there was Cholera in the towns on the plains to the east of our mountains, but we were protected from it by the Lord.”

“Since last I wrote we have moved to a community just east of the great salt sea I told you about. Lynne is between the eastern edge of the ‘Great Salt Lake’ and the mountains. Lynne is a fairly new, sparsly populated area, but everyone is very friendly and treats you just like family. Most of us are from Denmark.”

“The Great Salt Lake is amazing. It doesn’t have the waves of the sea, but it smells a lot like the ocean. There are no fish in it, which is very disapointing. It is so big that the islands in the middle are populated by wild animals. The streams and river coming out of the mountains are cold and clear and then they feed into the lake and become salty beyond belief. They say that it is so salty that a man can float in it without even trying. Personally, I have no desire to try.”

“We are living on a very different kind of farm here in Zion. The vegetables grow wonderfully, but only because we drag the water to them every day. We dig dtches and canals connecting to the river. We formed a group called the Lynne Ward Water Improvement District. Our goal is to improve the irregation system. It is literally an uphill battle to get enough water for our crops.”

“We started with a small ditch off of the river coming out of the canyon close to us. Then we stretched the ditch to another field and then to another. Now we have a system with gates and ditches to carry water clear down to the valley. It runs 24 hours a day, so some nights I have to get up every couple of hours to close some gates and open others. But it works.”

“The apple trees grow in orchards on the hillsides while the mountains shoot up above them like the fiords of home. The snows are still on the tops of the mountains and it’s already May.”

“It’s hard to believe that the Saints have lived here just over thirty years. Tomorrow, May 10th, ...”

Ane Marie interrupted her. “Oh my goodness. That got here in less than two months.”

“I know. The trains and the steam ships carry everything so much faster than before.” Hannah burbled to share their excitement and Kjerstine dabbed at the baby’s chin. “Now, let’s see, where was I? Oh yes...”

”Tomorrow, May 10th is the tenth anniversary of the driving of the gold spike up at Promontory Summit. For ten years now, Saints have been coming to Zion by train. This is not the wild west anymore.”

“In a couple of months, on the 24th of July, it will be 32 years since the first company of Saints came into the valley. Our family has been here now for almost 2 years. So much has happened that it sometimes seems as a dream. New families come and find their homesteads and their neighbors appear and, boom, they have a house built and a barn going up. As a counselor to our ward Bishop, I’ve been involved in a barn raising just about every week this summer.”

“Every day our testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ grow stronger and stronger. We know that this is where we are supposed to be. We know that Christ lives and that because of Him we shall be together, forever. We know that those who have died are not lost, that our Sophie Marie will be with us in our eternal family, forever.”

“The restored gospel and the Book of Mormon are true. You have read it and you know that what I’m saying is true. The Spirit of the Lord has answered our prayers and yours. I was so glad when you were both baptized. I can hardly wait for you to come. We even have a farm located for you, just a half mile from ours.”

“Two years ago the ground was broken and the building was begun on the House of the Lord in Logan. It is on the hillside and the temple will overlook a valley that is lush and green. When the temple is completed, we will go, as a family, and be sealed together for time and all eternity. We hope and pray every day that you will be here soon to also have your family sealed to you and you to us.”

“Until then, may the Lord bless and protect you. That is our prayer every night and morning.”

“Love, Peder, Petrine and the children.”

There was a sudden silence. Ane Kjerstine looked at her sister-in-law who looked quiet and sad. “Ane Marie, what’s wrong?”

“So you have decided to go, for sure?”

“Yes dear. We are going with Hans and his wife. We want to go as soon as next spring, if we can sell the farm.”

“Sell the farm! Are you serious? You can’t sell the farm.

“We have to. We need the money for the boat and train tickets. Besides, we won’t be coming back

You won’t be back? But even Peder came back.”

“Yes, Peder came back, but as a missionary. He came back to get us, and now we’re going.”

“We will miss you so much.”

Ane Kjerstine got up and came and put her hand on Ane Marie’s shoulder. “Don’t be silly. You’re coming too. Remember? We always planned this, ever since you heard the Elders that first time.”

“I know, but I’m not sure about that church of yours, making you sell the farm and leave your family and friends.” Alma began to get agitated so Ane Marie switched her to the other arm. “There must be something wrong about a church that makes people give up so much.”

“The gospel of Jesus Christ is worth every possession we have. We are looking forward to going to the Temple and being sealed together for time and all eternity.” Ane Kjerstine’s face was glowing and the timber of her voice was almost angelic.

“Well, don’t get Ole up in arms about it. You know how he was last winter when your missionaries wanted to teach him about the Book of Mormon. His mother wouldn’t let me alone until I promised that her grandchildren would all be raised as good Lutherans.”

“Ok. Ok, but next week you are coming to the picnic, right? It will be the 24th of July, a real ‘Pioneer Day’ celebration. You promised to bring your apple pies. Remember?”

Ane Marie was thoughtful for a moment, and then committed. “Even Ole will come if I make apple pies and you make your chicken. Yes, we’ll be there.”

And, good to her word, the next weekend she came with three of her apple pies. Ole had picked them for her. He’d even tasted one for her. But he would not come to the picnic. He made an excuse about having to go into town to help get the ship ready for the next trip. So she took the three pies in a basket, along with the bundle of clothes for the girls.

“It smells really good, Mama, but it is heavy.” Sophie complained. It was hard to believe that she was only five.

“I know, sweetie, but it is only a little farther.” She was struggling with four month old Amanda Petra, a three year old Alma and the clothes.

Just then they heard the voices of two men coming up behind them. “Sister Andreasen?

The two Mormon missionaries, Elder Johansen and Elder Andersen, quickly caught up with Ane Marie and her children. “Good morning, Sister Andreasen. May we help you with some of your bundles.?”

Sophie had already set her basket down with a sigh of relief. “Good Morning, Elders!”, she said gleefully, glad to have someone to help with her burden.

“Oh, gentlemen, thank you. Sophie and I would greatly appreciate it.”

One of the Elders took the basket from in front of Sophie, who quickly grabbed his hand and began to lead him up the road. The “Elders” were not old men. They were probably both in their mid-thirties. They had both come on their missions from Idaho. Ane Marie had been introduced to them by Ane Kjerstine.

Sophie was pummeling Elder Andersen with endless questions. “Do you have any children? My goat is this big and I can ride on him. How big is your farm? Do you grow apples? My Mama made these apple pies. Do you like apple pies?”

Elder Johansen had taken the bundle of clothes from Ane Marie. She shifted Petra Amanda and readhed back for little Alma, who was hiding behind her mother’s skirts. Nodding towards Sophie, he said, “That one will be a handful in school.”

“Oh, that’s right. Ane Kjerstine told me that one of you was a school teacher. Is it you?” He nodded. “Why did you leave teaching?”

“Oh, I did not leave teaching. I love to teach. That’s why I’m here. I’m teaching everyone that will listen about Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.”

“Several years ago, I was teaching at a small school in Copenhagen, but when I was approached by the missionaries and told about this church that preached about where we came from and why we are here upon the earth and where we are going, I had to learn more. When they told me about the Book of Mormon and that it was a second witness that Jesus Christ lived and was real, I had to read it.”

“I was in the middle of the school year when the let me have a copy. I read it twice before they returned. I knew it was true. The truth of it burned within me so much that I had to spend a fortnight learning more. When our discussions were ended, I was baptized. I had to learn still more, so I took my leave from the headmaster at the school and boarded a ship for America.”

“I trekked across the great plains of America and climbed the Rocky Mountains in order to hear a prophet’s voice. I was in one of the last wagon trains to cross them. Now there is a railroad that goes all the way from the east coast straight there.”

“You know that Christ called 12 Apostles to teach the people when He left the earth.”

She stopped for a moment, “Yes.”

“Well, when I got to Salt Lake City, I met with one of the new Apostles, Elder Lorenzo Snow. Then I had a chance to meet with the Prophet, Brigham Young.”

“I thought that Joseph Smith was the Prophet?” She looked confused, but interested.

“Joseph was the first Prophet of this dispensation, or period of time. He was murdered in 1844. Brigham Young is now the President of the Church and the Prophet.”

“He told me that the Lord had a mission for me to do. I was to get married, set up a school, find another teacher and then I was to return to Denmark and teach others of what I knew.”

“I met Andrea, the woman who was to become my wife. as I was leaving Brigham’s office. She was there to see about a teaching position in one of the schools. That was ten years ago, and now, here I am.”

“Andrea is back there in the valley, now, teaching school and raising our son.”

“You must miss them very much.”

“I do, but what I am doing is required of me.” Again she looked quizzical. He went on, “It says in the Bible that ‘to him unto whom much is given, much is expected’. I’ve been very blessed to find the truth. Now I must share it.”

Sophie was hollering, “We’re here! We’re here!” They could now see the farm and all the people gathered for the picnic. Sophie was pulling even harder on Elder Andersen’s hand. Finally she let go and ran to her cousins.

Elder Andersen continued on towards the tables that were set up in the yard and placed the basket of pies upon it. He turned to see that his companion was almost at the gate and then went to visit with one of the group of men that were standing near a tree.

Elder Johansen asked her, “Where would you like this bundle?”

“Up on the porch will be fine. Thank you for helping us. And thank you for telling me about your mission.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” He took a few steps, placed the bundle on the porch and then returned to look at her for a moment. “I want you to know that I really do believe in what I am here to teach. Jesus Christ does live and that His gospel has been restored.”

“Thank you, Elder Johansen. I will remember that.”

“Thank you, Sister Andreasen.” And with that, he turned and joined his companion.

“Now I thought that you did not want to be pressured by the missionaries, and here you bring them with you.” Ane Kjerstine was grinning like a cheshire cat as she ran up to greet them.

Ane Marie could feel the embarassment show on her face. “Oh, stop that. They just happened to be coming up the hill and helped us with our basket.”

“Well, what do you think?”

“Well, it is easy to see why you believe them. Elder Johansen told us about how he came to be a member of your church. He seems very honest and he believes what he is saying, but I find it very curious. He must have a lot of faith to give up a good teaching position and run off to America, just to meet this Prophet of yours.”

“I know. We can hardly wait to meet him ourselves.” She waited for Ane Marie to say more, but Ane Marie had turned her attention to looking for Sophie. She finally spotted her and then she knelt down and told Alma to go play with her sister.

Ane Marie asked Ane Kjerstine if there was anything she could help with, but Ane Kjerstine said that there would be time later when she would need her help. For now, Ane Kjerstine said that Ane Marie should find a place for her quilt and relax under a tree with Amanda Petra. She found such a position and watched her two older girls play while she cared for the baby.

She half expected that the missionaries would try again to engage her in their gospel preaching, but they were busy answering questions for those new converts to their religion who would soon be getting on ships to go to 'Zion’. She left the baby on the quilt and went to the table to get herself a plate of chicken and a piece of pie. Other than that, she never left the shade of the tree.

Women that she knew came by and talked for a while, but overall, she felt kind of excluded from the main flow of conversations. With just an hour of daylight left, she wrapped up her bundles and children and said goodbye to Ane Kjerstine and her brother.

As she and the children walked home, she told them, “Let’s hurry. Daddy may be home.”

But he wasn’t. It was too late to go looking for him, so she put the children to bed and sat down at their little kitchen table. The oil lamp was flickering. She got up and looked around the room. Everything was in it’s place, but it felt very empty. Her eye fell upon the copy of the Book of Mormon her brother had given her. She had looked at the cover page and that was about all.

She picked it up and began to read to herself, “The Book of Mormon, an account written by the hand of Mormon.” She looked up and around her and saw nothing different, so she continued to read. That night, as the oil lamp light flickered, she read about a man and his family as they left what was familiar and began their travels through a wilderness. It was an interesting story, but that was all. She finally closed the book and placed it back on the shelf and crawled into her bed.

Ole came home the next evening. The ship had been struggling to get home, but it finally made it. The haul was skimpy, but one of the nets had pulled away and dragged one of his shipmates to his death. The captain had decided that they needed to come home to repair the boom and to give the crew a break.

“We were just through lowering the net when the ship gave a shutter. We all fell to our knees as if we had hit a rock. And then the crack of the breaking wood made us all look up. The boom just snapped and whipped past me. Poor Olafsen was in the way and it stuck him full in the chest. He was dragged overboard and down into the depths. He was gone. We looked all afternoon, we never found him. The captain says that the net caught upon the bottom and that it was the boom or the ship.”

“What about his wife? Where does she live?”

“He wasn’t married. His mother lives on the other side of town. The captain went to tell her. It will be hard on her. He was her last son. She lost her husband to the fever about two years ago, and her other son, Jon died in the really bad storm two weeks after that.”

“Oh, the poor woman.”

“I know. What’s for dinner?”

A month later, Alma started to cough during the night. Ole spent the whole night walking the floor with her. In the morning, she sounded better, so he reported to the boat. Sometime during the next night, Alma’s cough came back, worse than before. Ane Marie had her mother and mother-in-law’s remedies, but nothing helped.

Ane Marie asked her mother to watch Amanda Petra while she took Alma to the doctor’s office. The doctor listened to Alma’s chest. “It doesn’t sound good. I think that she may have an issue with her heart. The lungs are filling up and she is weakening. I’m afraid that there is not much we can do. Hopefully she can shake this off. Make sure that she keeps warm and has plenty of fluids.”

“That’s it! That’s all you can do for her?”

“I’m afraid so.”

As she carried her little three year old from the office, she was crying and Alma asked her, “What’s wrong, Mommy?”

“Nothing, sweetheart. It’s nothing. I’m all right.” Then she stopped and held Alma at arms lenght so she could look in her face and said, “Mommy loves you and everything will be all right.”

Alma began to cough, so she hugged her to her shoulder and continued the walk back to their apartment. By the time Ane Marie got home, Alma was asleep. Gently Ane Marie put her to bed. Then she went and whispered to her mother what the doctor had sad. They both began to weep quietly.

A week later, when Ole arrived home, Ane Marie took him outside and told him what the doctor had said.

“She looks fine. She’s just recovering from the cold.”

And little Alma did seem to get a bit stronger every day. Ole even went to work. He came home and everyone ran to greet him, including little Alma. But on the next trip, during the first week of September, 1879, she died. He never saw little Alma alive again. One moment she was fine, walking down the stairs from the apartment and the next she just collapsed on the landing, her blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Her heart had just stopped.

Ane Marie was at the top of the stairs, watching her little girl go down to play with her sister. When it happened, Ane Marie ran down the stairs to her, but Alma was already gone. Ane Marie began to cry and Sophie came up to the landing to see what was wrong. The neighbor on that landing was just standing there, an amazed look on her face.

The neighbor, Else, said, “What happened?”

“Else, would you have your boy go get my father? I need him. My little Alma has died.”

“Oh my! Of course dear.” Else called for her son to go to the Olesen farm. Ane Marie was still on her knees and could barely give him the instructions on how to get there. It was a bright, sun shiny day, and yet her daughter’s blanket was wet with tears as if it had been raining.

Finally, Else lifted Ane Marie by the shoulders and stood her to the side. Then Else bent down next to Alma. Gently she wrapped the child in the blanket, picked her up and carried her up the stairs to Ane Marie’s apartment. She carefully placed the baby on the bed. Ane Marie had followed in a daze. Little Amanda Petra had not raised a howl until they stepped back into the apartment but then she began and could not be comforted. Sophie sat in a chair, holding Amanda Petra, but she too was crying.

When Ane Marie’s parents arrived, everyone was still whimpering. The sight of her mother sent Ane Marie back into uncontrollable sobbing. All Ane Marie’s mother could do was take little Amanda Petra from Sophie’s arms and put her to bed and then hold her own daughter while she cried. Grandpa held his little Sophie while she fell asleep and then he put her on her bed.

With nothing to do, he began to think about the wood he had around the barn that would be good enough for a coffin. Finally he left and went to make it. When he came back in the morning he brought it with him on the cart.

Grandma Olesen had Sophie and Amanda dressed before Ane Marie finally woke up. She had cried herself to sleep in her mother’s arms, but she awoke every couple of minutes to check on Alma and would then sob herself back to sleep.

There was no way to contact fishing vessels at sea except to ask that all the departing vessels be on the lookout for the Johansen boat. Rasmus and Juliane made sure to leave word with every captain still in port and at the pubs, but they had to proceed with the funeral. Again Ane Marie was without Ole at a crucial point in their lives.

Carefully, Ane Marie dressed Alma in the prettiest dress she had. It was a soft, yellow one that Ole’s mother had made for her. She too was there, caring for Sophie and Amanda Petra while Ane Marie’s mother cared for her and Alma.

Gently, they carried the child down the stairs and placed her in the coffin. Else and some of the other neighbors followed after the family as they took the path to the Olesen farm. Rasmus, Ane Kjerstine and their family were already there. Rasmus and Hans had dug the grave. There, up in the space by the orchard, the minister spoke a few words.

“God loved us, so he sent his Son, to teach us and guide us. He said, ‘Blessed be the little children and let them come unto me’. Blesssed be the name of the Lord. Amen.”

And that was all.