The Myklebust Loom

“It was the day before Christmas Eve, and Christmas filled every corner of the farm. The lutefisk had been set to soak, and the Christmas cakes stood lined up in rows in the pantry. Lefse hung drying above the stove, and in the small back room the sack of clementines and walnuts was hidden behind the old sewing cabinet.” (p. 100 in Remember the Ladies!)

Anna is 9 years old and celebrates her last Christmas on her parents’ farm in Uskedalen, on the Folgefonna peninsula, together with her mother, father, and siblings: 

“She still remembers how she and her sister each received a homemade dress with a lace collar. New stockings and new shoes were placed by the bed. Mother always said there should be something new when the child in the manger arrived. Clean body, clean clothes, clean thoughts. 

The day before Christmas, she sang “Here We Come, O Little Ones…” together with her mother in the weaving room. Her mother sat at the loom, while Anna sat on a small stool, admiring the hands that worked without looking down.

The verses were woven into the threads. No clock was needed in the house—it was the rhythm of baking, weaving, and song that told the time. 

On Christmas Eve, the church bells rang in Rosendal. They could be heard all the way to Uskedalen, like an echo across the fjord. The family sat gathered together. The father read the Christmas Gospel. He laid his hands on the table and prayed. There was silence, and Christmas snow. 

After dinner they sang around the tree. It was decorated with real candles, Norwegian flags, and handmade paper baskets. And beneath the tree: small, useful gifts, sewn, knitted, or whittled with love. 

That Christmas, Anna did not know it would be the last time she would see her father read the Christmas Gospel. But afterward, she thought she had sensed it in some way: that something sacred had been present in the room that evening. She remembers how her mother stroked her hair and said, “Take care of the song, Anna. And never forget the light in December.” (p. 100).

Anna travels to America in 1914, at the age of 21, to take care of her brother’s children. He and his family live in Rosalia, Washington. Later, Anna moves to Idaho. There she marries John Raymond Tobiason. Anna and John settle in Longview, where they run a general store for 29 years. They later move to Tacoma. Anna is active in Lutheran church life in America. 

Like many other emigrant women, Anna Tobiason continues to hold on to Norwegian traditions, and she also maintains contact with relatives and family in Norway throughout her life. 

^{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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