BIOGRAPHY OF SUSAN SHAW

COMPILED BY HER DAUGHTER FRANCES ASSISTED BY HER SISTER,

ENID NEWTON

We know that it was a hard life with a diet mainly of fish and potatoes. Her father was a stern man who always insisted on their cleaning their plates. She used to tell the story about one time when her grandmother served them pickled herring, a staple there, but Mama detested it (probably the only Swede who didn't like herring). Her grandmother noticed that Mama was quietly slipping it under the table instead of into her mouth. Later, when her father wasn't paying attention, her grandmother took her to the kitchen and gave her something else to eat.

Aren't grandmothers wonderful?

Mama's father, August Carlsson, died of cancerin 1904. She told about the funeral on Kanso being on a stormy day. The coffin had to be lowered into a pool of water
as there had been so much rain.

Susan found a job as a kitchen maid, which is how most of the Swedish girls started. She worked for a very wealthy judge with a city house and a country estate with horses. When he went to the country, he had a private railway car and took most of the servants with him. Susan's job was helping the cook in the kitchen and waiting on the servants' table! She rarely saw the rest of the house except to help occasionally with dusting

Susan's oldest brother, John, had gone to the U.S. in 1900, working on a ship. After working in various parts of the U.S. he returned to Sweden in 1906, then back to New York in November, 1906, with their youngest brother, Charles. The three of them then went to Skamakowa to visit their cousin, Joseph Bergman, who was working for Aunty Fletcher on n farm there, where she lived with her husband, a retired army officer. Mama used to tell about learning to ride horseback on corduroy roads and trying to milk the cow without much success. In December the three of them went to Seattle, where Mama got a job as alterations seamstress in a department store.

Soon after her graduation from Chiropractic college Susan heard of a Chiropractor, Ernest Shaw, in Vancouver, who needed an assistant. He also was a member of the Plymouth Brethren. In 1915 they were married' and bought a house on Fifth Avenue in the Grandview district of Vancouver. Frances was born in that house on March 5 1916. Later they moved a short distance to Gravely Street, a house with a view of the beautiful mountains on the north shore. Enid was born there on January 5.

Ernest died quite suddenly in 1919, and Susan was left with two small children to raise. The Hamiltons came from Los Angeles and helped her for some time, and she moved her practice from the downtown office to her home so that she could be with the children. The children called the Hamiltons Grandpa and Grandma and loved them very dearly. Later an elderly lady who lived with her daughter on Vancouver Island would come and spend a few weeks or even months at a time. She was "Grandma Green", and she really spoiled us children, but it was wonderful to have surrogate grand-mothers since our own were nowhere near us.

In 1923 Susan took the children on a trip to Sweden, going by train to New York, where they stayed with her cousin, Hannah Bradshaw, and her husband, Walter, and their children on Staten Island. They joined Stina and Frank Stenberg and their oldest boy, Donald, there, and all sailed on the Stockholm for Sweden.

On our arrival in Sweden Mormor was quite upset when, staying with the children on Morbror Johan's small boat while Mama went through customs, we couldn't talk to each other. Frances (always the talker) tried, but poor Mormor finally groaned "Oh, detta Babbel!" However, it didn't take long for the children to learn quite a bit of Swedish, although Frances never could say "sju" properly when asked her age.

After spending seven weeks in Sweden, Susan arranged for Alfhild Peterson to return with us to help with the housework and taking care of us children when

Mama was busy with patients. We stopped for five days in London for some Brethren's "special meetings" then sailed to New York on the Aquatania, stopping again with the Bradshaws for a few days. I remember it was EXTREMELY hot on Staten Island, and we were on the top floor of Aunt Hannah's house! Also, Mama had the wonderful job of getting rid of lice on the heads of two little girls—picked up somehow on the ship.

Eventually Alfhild was married in our home to a man in the Swedish Church she had been attending in Vancouver. After that Mama invited an old gentleman from a retirement home, Mr. Marsh, to live with us rent free for looking after the furnace and doing some yard work. He was .very happy to be free to come and go and attend the Brethren's meetings. He was good company for us children, teaching us many tricks like making jumping frogs from the breast bone of a chicken and a rubber band

In the summer of 1928 Susan took the children to visit the Berkeley relatives, staying with Charles and Anna for two months except for a short visit with

Mrs. Hamilton in L.A. The trip was made on the coastal steamers which, of course,

is the way she liked to travel even though we children almost always got seasick

On our return to Vancouver Susan put her name on the quota for permanent residence in the U.S., sold the house, auctioning almost all our beautiful furniture, and we lived in a downtown office/apartment building for two years until her name came up on the quota.

In June, 1930, we moved to Berkeley, staying with Charles and Anna briefly until

 we found a house to rent near them. In a few months we moved to a lower flat

on Dwight Way, then to a much larger but cheaper upstairs flat on Parker Street.

These, of course, were the depression years, and Mama's resources were soon depleted mainly because she had been persuaded by "well meaning" relatives and friends not to go back briefly to Chiropractic College then take her State Board Exam, so that she could regain her California license. This was-really a pity because our mother was a very intelligent woman, an avid reader of all types of books from theological to scientific. She also spoke excellent English with no accent. She would have had no trouble at all with the State Board Exam.

Because of this we survived on whatever odd jobs she could get like alterations in department stores, doing some dressmaking at home for people? who heard of her excellent tailoring, even housework at times. We girls had after school jobs doing housework and babysitting.

Times were tough, but the Lord always provided, and we never actually went hungry. We did get a bit tired of wearing secondhand clothes. Actually, the whole experience was undoubtedly good for us.

One highlight of these times was when Uncle Charles would bring us a salmon caught from the pilot boat while waiting for another ship to come in. On these occasions Mama would stuff and bake it, buy a few vegetables, and invite company to share the treat!

Frances was graduated from high school in June, 1933- After six months in secretarial school paid for by Grandma Hamilton (rather than U.C., which had been her dream) and a three month office job in San Francisco (commuting by ferry while the Bay Bridge was being built), she got a permanent job with the Berkeley schools, finally becoming Registrar until she took early retirement in June, 1973.

Enid was graduated from- high school in June then worked in elementary schools and other office jobs while attending Chiropractic College in Oakland. About the time she finished that and took her state board exam she met Dan Newton from L.A. at a Brethren's conference and corresponded with him after he was drafted into the army a few months before the U.S. entered into World War II. He was stationed at Fort Lewis; and when she visited him there, he asked her to marry him. They were married November 7t 1942, and lived in Tacoma until June, 19??. He was moved when Vivian, their first child, was only five weeks old, then moved a couple more times before being discharged from Fort Mason, San Francisco, in 19??. At that time Enid and Vivian stayed with Susan and Frances. After his discharge they moved to Los Angeles, so it became the practice for Frances to take time off during school vacation at Christmas and Easter to visit the children in L.A., travelling by train and bus.

Mama was always very faithful in being with Enid when her babies were born, making the trip to Tacoma by bus. The trips to L.A. were by train and bus. When Grace was born, she actually performed the delivery except for cutting the cord because the doctor didn't get there in time. Grace was in such a hurry!

I guess 'it was in 19?? that we had a really trying time. In those days trips to San Francisco were made on the red S.P. trains which ran close to our home and connected with the ferry. They ran every 20 minutes. For some reason we had a time schedule to keep and ran for the red train. The next day Mama had a heart attack — angina, I guess. We took care of her at home, the sisters in our local meeting being very faithful in sitting with her when Frances was at work. At the same time Enid was critically ill. Danny's mother would send telegrams to Frances at work so that Mama wouldn't know. Enid also was kept in ignorance of Mama's condition for a while. This was pretty difficult for Frances being torn between the two, but eventually Marna recovered completely with no trace of damage.

In 1951 Frances bought her first car an old Chevrolet sedan with very few miles on it, driven by the proverbial old lady from Piedmont. All it needed was a paint job because it had stood outside. After that the trips to L.A. were made by car, of course, frequently stopping overnight on the way someplace on the coast which, of course, Mama really enjoyed.

Enid was always very generous about sharing her children with us. They sometimes came home with us, then Danny and Enid might come up for vacation with us at Yosemite camping in borrowed tents and getting rained out or staying in a cabin at Russian River which Frances rented from someone at school. The actual camping Mama did not enjoy. She liked the comforts of home! but she was always a good sport about it, making the campsite as comfortable as possible.

In 1954 we made our first long automobile trip — to Kalispell, Montana, then Vancouver, taking Vivian with us. She was just recovering from a burst appendix, and we thought the trip might be good for her. However, I guess it was a lot of driving for a child her age. She did enjoy the time on a farm in Kalispell with children her own age.

In the spring of 1955 Frances was able to buy a house in Albany, not far from Aron and Beda Bergman. That was somewhat of an adjustment for Mama to a new neighborhood, but she soon enjoyed the pretty walk to the grocery stores in between weekend shopping trips with Frances. She also enjoyed taking the bus to Oakland occasionally to window shop at the big department stores.

In 1959 Charles invited Susan to take a trip to Sweden with him. That was the year of Aunt Maria's 80th birthday celebration, In Sweden she stayed in the room where her mother had spent her last days. She enjoyed the view of the water from the

room so much that she slept very little while there. On the way home she stopped in London for the Brethren's Conference in August.

In I960 Frances got her first 4-week summer vacation, so she and Susan with Vivian and Grace made a 4-week trip by car driving four days then stopping for three-day weekends. In those days motels with kitchens were easy to find so we carried an ice box and ate breakfast and dinner in the motels, lunch being either a picnic or in a coffee shop. The first 3-day weekend was at Kalispell, then through Yellowstone, Waterton Lakes, and Calgary to Edmonton for a brethren's conference, then through Columbia Ice Fields, Lake Louise, etc. to Vancouver for the final weekend and down the coast to home. The roads were not so good in those days — many really scary detours, flat tires, etc. Mama was very brave most of the time. Once she really fell apart, but I had no choice but to keep going. One thing was sure, the Lord's protecting hand was definitely around us.

In 1967 on Uncle Charles' birthday, May 1?, Mama fell on the street after church on her way to the car where Frances and Uncle Charles wore waiting for her, breaking her hip. She had pins put in and spent some time in the hospital learning how to use the walker. She managed very well with a visiting nurse in the mornings and spent the afternoon alone until Frances got home Soon she was doing everything for herself again.

In 1969 Signhild carne to spend the summer. We met her in L.A. and took in San Diego and Yosemite on the way home. Until Frances had to go back to work we did lots of sightseeing. After that she spent some time visiting with Mama. Then some of the other cousins took her on various trips to visit other relatives in California.

In the summer of 1972 Grace and Bob with the J-r two children left for Unalakleet, Alaska. By that time Mama's hip with the pins in it was really bothering her, and she actually consented to use a wheelchair at the airport when we saw them off. At that time she said to Grace "I'm not going to see you again." Grace never forgot that.

In June, 1973 Frances took early retirement from the Berkeley school system. Just a few days before her retirement banquet Mama was in Frances' bedroom discussing the coming banquet when she slipped on a throw rug and went down on the floor, breaking her other hip. This time all that was required was bed rest in the hospital until it healed itself. What a disappointment! Danny and Enid came up for the banquet. Then, when Frances and Rhoda went to Hawaii for a one-week retirement celebration, Enid came back and stayed with Mama.

When Frances retired, her intention was to look for part-time work with some Christian organization, preferably Family Radio. On October, 1973 that dream came true, and she has been working there ever since for an average of 20 hours per week. This has been real blessing. Until Mama died Frances had more time- to help her and yet wasn't in her way all the time.

As time went on, the pins in Mama's broken hip became increasingly painful, so it was decided to have them removed in September, 1974. When she came home, she wrote Enid telling her how much better she felt. However, she was taking some very strong pain medicine for the pain from the surgery. Apparently that, along with a possibly pre-existing stomach condition, caused a massive hemorrhage, and she spent the next five weeks in the intensive care unit of Alta Bates Hospital. During that time she longed to go home to be with her Savior, but of course the doctors insisted on keeping her alive as long as possible, putting her through many very painful procedures. On October 6 Uncle Charles passed away. "When I told Mama I was going to the funeral, she said, "I'll be next", and she was. On November 6, 1974 she went to be with the Lord she loved.

Enid had been with us for a while during Mama's hospitalization and of course she and Danny and Rhoda and Douglas came up again as soon as they heard she had "gone home". They spent their wedding anniversary, November 7, helping make the funeral arrangements in a pouring rain, but the day of the funeral was beautiful, and her body is buried near her brother, Charles. However, she is not there. She is with her Lord in Heaven, where we expect to join her when it is His Will.