The Following letter was written by Ole Jacob to his son Matt Gardner.
We assume that Matius Garlous was changed to Matt Gardner after he
immigrated to the United States. This letter was given to my mother by
??
Hokksund, January 18, 46
Dear son and family,
Have received a parcel with clothes, shoes and coffee 2 - 3 days ago, for
which I thank you very much, they are most needed, because it is, so to
say, still impossible to buy anything, the shoes are just my size, I have
bought neither shoes nor boots since many years before the war, and there
will not be anything to buy for another long time. This parcel I suppose
we shall not have free, when you are writing, you have to let us know,
and we have to know how you are, I may probably be a grandfather to
someone with you, hope you are healthy. All of us are healthy, and under
the circumstances we are all right, but not good, we have the same small
rations as before, we have all the time had something to eat, but nearly
without nourishment, I myself have lost almost 30 kg, before the war I
weighed 88 kg and just 60, and that is much, (61.6 lbs JNS) but my health
has been pretty good. Can tell you that the girls became most excited
about the dresses, and I should say thank you very much. As you may know
I have 4 children in my second marriage, namely Peter 28 years, engaged
to a girl in Hallingdal, Thora 25 years, married to a boy Kongsberg,
lives there and have a boy, Solveig 23 years works at the railway office
in Drammen and is earning good money, Rakel 18 years is working in a
knitwear shop in Drammen.
Well now the Christmas is over for this time also, but - but - but - it
was a poor and strange Christmas, so I, who is this old, have not
experienced anything like it, we did not have any ordinary Christmas food
and no Christmas brandy, and we just had to sit inside staring at each
other, and when it is like that, there is no atmosphere among each other.
For the time being we have an extraordinary fine weather, almost no snow
and the cold we have not had until the last days.
Have to stop with hearty greetings to you from your father with the wish
of a Happy New Year.
OJEnsrud
Greetings from everybody here.
The translation From Norwegian was provided by Ole's Granddaughter Britt
Myrmel on 28 AUG 1995. (JNS).
Ole was born on 10 June 1867 at Toten, Norway. He married
Auline Holje in 1889. He married
Ingeborg Kvarteig in 1917. Ole died on 15 January 1961 at age 93.