What might have been!

     Cousins; there were several on my mother's side of the family...the Berghs.  Uncle Oscar did his part with 7 daughters and a son. My mother contributed four. There could have been many more. Uncle Martin died in a plane crash in his early 20s before he was married. Aunt Ella died unmarried in 1918 of the Spanish Flu. Aunt Margaret had a hear murmur so had no children and died about age 40. Aunt Huldah married a widower and they had no children. There were ten children in mother's family who lived to adulthood...the first two died as infants. Mother was third youngest.
      This brings us to Marie Cecelia, mother's oldest surviving sibling. Mother always called her Cecelia so that's the name I will use. Grandpa Bergh was a pastor in the Hauges Lutheran Synod. He established a congregation 4  miles south of Volga, S.D.. on land he owned, in 1884. Because there was a shortage of pastors he traveled to other congregations to preach. One of those congregations was 15 miles southwest of Balaton,  MN. Balaton is about 60 miles east of Volga and a train connected them.
Likely Cecelia traveled with her father to the congregation near Balaton where she met and married a local farmer, Alfred Folstad (My mother much later would marry a farmer named Albert Negstad.).
       In 1910 Cecelia gave birth to my cousin, Clifford Folstad.  A month after Clifford was born Cecelia died of uremic poisoning. Three years later Clifford drown in a cattle, water tank. In 1920, Cecelia's husband and Clifford's father, Alfred, died of the Spanish Flu.
     Long I've wanted to visit the cemetery where they are buried and today I did. Expecting a forlorn and forgotten place I brought materials to clean neglected grave markers. Much to my surprise, and pleasure, I found an exceptionally well tended cemetery. The church which once stood there was founded in 1900, so the Folstads are among the earlier burials and quite central. No upkeep was required of me.
    It was 97 degrees with a fierce south wind, the temperature I don't mind, blowing much dust in the air. There is a deep sense of satisfaction making the visit and it feels it feels like I've completed an important loop. My mother was ten when Cecelia died and, before her sister's untimely death,  she would go and stay with her. Had this family lived I may have been blessed with more cousins.

Takk for alt,

Al

Where the Folstads are buried.

Before.

After.