Solveig Margarethe Strøm-Olsen by Tessa Gori

          Solveig Margarethe Strøm- Olsen. I know, it's a mouthful. It's a Norwegian name meaning ¨daughter of the sun" or just simply ¨sunshine¨. This is the name of one of the most influential women in my life, my grandmother. In this post, I would like to tell you all a bit about my nana and the amazing life that she's lead. 
         My Nana grew up in Norway in the midst of World War 2. As a child, the Nazis invaded her village. When I was little, she told me stories of the day they marched in. She recalls watching from her window as her neighbors were taken out of their houses and soldiers lined every street corner. Her, being the mischevious child she was, decided that to make money, she would steal the Nazi's cigarettes right out of their trolleys, and then sell them back to them at ridiculous prices. Despite her mother's pleas for her not to, she didn't stop. 
          When she was 14, she and her mother sailed to the United States in order to escape the war conditions and to meet her dad, as he was already there. When I asked her about this day, she said that the worst part was they wouldn't let her take her Shirley Temple doll on the ship, ¨I still miss that doll. It was my favorite¨, she recounts. She didn't know a lick of English when she arrived and was sent to an American school and expected to learn. Quickly, she learned English and excelled in school.
        When she was 18, she met my grandfather. Wallace Robbins. A quiet, Jewish man. Her parents were very upset with her for marrying a Jewish man, but she didn't care. Together, they had 4 children. Bruce, Ruthann, Eric, and my mother, Lisa. 
         Some of my favorite memories are sitting at my Nana's feet as she told me her childhood stories in her pretty Norwegian accent. The only two phrases that I know in Norwegian from her are ¨I love you¨ and ¨Shut up¨, and if that doesn't explain my Nana, I don´t know what does.