October 27, 2022
Listen to this episode on iTunes. Full transcript is provided here.
Music Credits
Kalyn Pedde / Kjerringa Med Staven / courtesy of artist
Carl Martin / Sweet Vera / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Transcript
My grandmother used to sing this old Norwegian folk song to me. It’s called Kjerringa Med Staven.
It’s about a woman from up in the mountains. She’s making butter and seems to be having a great time.
When I pictured the woman in the song, I was pretty fascinated by her. She seemed like such a hero.
My grandmother – I called her Bessa – she sang this song in such a happy way. We sang this so many times when I was little.
When I think about Bessa, she was like that woman in the song.
Working hard, and happy about life. She lived with so much strength.
Bessa went through some hard times – and yet she kept going. She was pretty matter of fact – and she didn’t feel sorry for herself.
Bessa was lively in every sense of the word, and full of fun. And – the ordinary things in her day were really special to her.
Like a bluebird on the feeder. Or a nice cup of hot coffee.
How was Bessa able to keep noticing the beautiful and wonderful things around her? Even with the tough times that she experienced?
I’ve really wondered about this.
And how did she even just get through?
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Bessa wanted to tell her life’s story, and she asked me to help share it.
Many years ago, Bessa told me her story and we recorded our conversations. At the time, I didn’t know I would share the recordings in a podcast.
We sat down together for what must have been over a dozen times and hit record.
Bessa told me about her childhood in Norway and what happened during World War II, in her own home and yard. She shared funny stories about her first jobs, and then her immigration to the United States, and how she built her life.
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Bessa died in 2018. I’m happy to finally share some of her stories with you here. While some of them describe hard times, a lot of them are hilarious and incredible.
You won’t hear every detail of her entire life, but will get to know Bessa and how she lived, and you might learn something from her.
I’m your host, Kristen Hendrickson, and I hope you will enjoy Bessa’s Story.
Many thanks to Kalyn Pedde, who arranged and performed Kjerringa Med Staven. Kalyn is also the sound engineer for this podcast and has helped me tremendously with getting the sound right for this show.
Thank you also to Dawn Dreyer for reading my scripts and sharing your feedback. Thanks to Kalyn, Ryan, and Owen for listening, and giving me your honest opinions.