By a strange coincidence, our family gained another tie to the Tidaholm area when our grandmother Edith OLSON married Melker FRANSON (8 Apr. 1900 - 14 July 1978) in Chicago. Our "Uncle Mike" had been born and raised only a few miles from the birthplace of Edith's own mother Mathilda BREDBERG. He spent his childhood in the tiny cottage below, still neat and cozy deep in the pine woods of Suntak outside Tidaholm.

We were treated to a guided tour of the area by Melker's son Folke Svensson, who was fathered by Uncle Mike before he left Sweden, and who was raised by Uncle Mike's mother in the same little red house. Folke (LEFT in photo below) was accompanied by his boyhood friend who acted as interpreter.

Folke had retired and lived in an apartment in Tidaholm. He had recently sold his own little house in the woods not far from the old cottage, and we drove by to visit. The young man (center) with the author in the photo was remodeling the place. Note the "May Pole" in the yard, left over from Midsummer Night's Eve festivities.

We were informed by kind neighbors, the Antonssons of Tidalhom, that Folke died on April 8, 2002 in the Old Folks' Home where he had been convalescing after surgery; he was buried in Suntak. A great number of friends and relatives were there. Folke is survived by cousins in Falko"ping, his half-brother Karl Agren and Karl-Gustav in Gothenburg. He will be remembered as a kind and nice person.