“The Pastor’s Wife” — with Norwegian roots and four daughters

Pernille Henrikke Blomelie leaves Aga on Fitjar in 1916, at the age of 23, and travels to America, where her mother and siblings are already living. 

Pernille meets Olaf Blomelie. They are married in 1919. He becomes a pastor. She is now Pastor’s wife Nellie. Together they serve in several mission churches and move to Alberta, Canada:

It is Christmas Eve, and the wind pulled through the walls. They had lit the stove, but the firewood was damp, and the flame flickered with a weak light. She went over to the window and looked out across the white plains. Alberta lay like a frozen land, forgotten by both God and people. Her husband was already on his way to the next congregation, and she did not know whether he would return tomorrow or next week—or whether he would return at all. The road was long. Four churches across more than six hundred miles. (p. 100 in Remember the Ladies!)

Nellie and Olaf have four daughters together: “They were her life’s work”:

“And the girls—yes, they managed. All four of them. One played the organ in a church in Portland. Another worked at a bank, with strength in her gaze and order in her papers. The third lived in Tacoma, the one who had always been the most cautious. And the fourth had become a nurse, with warm hands and clear answers. They were her life’s work. They were her song of victory.” (p. 109).

In Tacoma in 1968, Nellie’s husband Olaf dies. The same year, Nellie visits Norway for the first time after more than 50 years in America. “She placed her hand on her chest and whispered to herself: I never came home—but I carried home with me.” (p. 110).

Pernille – eller Nellie – holdt som mange andre udvandrerkvinder fast ved sine norske rødder i Amerika. 

^{In the days leading up to Christmas, we meet one of the book’s ten Norwegian women each day. They represent a large and diverse group of female voices that are only now, at the 200th anniversary of Norwegian emigration to America, beginning to be heard.}

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