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Amund's Letter

This is a letter written from my Great Great Grandfather Amund Glimme to his brother and sister-in-law John O. and Carrie Spilde who were raising my Great Grandfather as their step-son.

I do not know for sure, but I am guessing the translation is by Alma, daughter of Amund and his third wife. 

Translation:

Voss, the 24th of April, 1886

Dear ones in the far away:

Loneliness to hear from you drives me to take the pen in hand so you can hear, get a few words. First I can tell you that I with my family live as usual, well. It is myself that is sort of weak now and then. Lately I have been a little better so I work most of the time. But the family is as you heard before, consisting of wife and 3 children and the family are all (plump-well fed.) We hope that you also are in good health because the time goes quickly till the endtime. God grant that we can be (relate, removed) to a better life in Lord Jesus.

My work these days is with bathing people, especially in the spring and fall, most of this bathing is done. {At this time in Norway, hot steam baths or hot clay baths, were the official treatment for alcoholics. Sweating was to "sweat the alcohol out of their bodies."}

The house and property, I am holding for sale but there is no one that has appeared as a buyer. You will well ask why I want to sell and that is because I am not comfortable with my business -- will say that it is handling sick people in what we call Russian (dampness-sauna-steam?). It is so hot people cannot tolerate it longer than half hour at a time and when people shall keep on each day man gets somewhat (discouraged-weakened), as you know, and that is something too hard for me, who is weak in the first place. Total abstention is in full activity. It is now a year since we established this organization with 13 members and now we total 80, so it goes forward, as it is well necessary, for here are too many that die a drunkards grave. I have mostly been foreman in the organization.

From Spilde I have not heard recently but the last I heard, they were all well as usual.

Has Adolf begun to learn the alphabet? Is it easy for him to read and a desire to learn? I hope he has a foundation to work on. Hope he is smart and lively, a desire to learn that which is good. He is young, but folks can early see that which a child has a talent for.

Forgive me for waiting so long to write.

Many times begun but only half finished.

Brother, A. Glemee.

This page was last updated on Sunday, October 08, 2017 .