“They're dead,” the friend had told him gently. “A house fire... Everything was lost.” At first, Lars was
stunned. And then he began feeling guilty. He had not bothered to keep in touch. No one knew where he
was. And for the past 17 long months, while he uncaringly roamed the vastness of the seven seas, his par-
ents were dead. It seemed, somehow, very disrespectful. ae

“But,” the friend said in an effort to console him, “perhaps you made a wise choice going to sea. If . -
you hadn’t, you would have followed in your father’s footsteps... And it’s very likely, you too would be
dead.” »

Understandably, Lars talked to no one else for several days. What would they think? “There he
is,” he imagined they would say. “The disrespectful and uncaring son who was so busy entertaining him-
self he didn’t even bother to learn of his parents’ death.” .

Eventually, he stole quietly.out of this unforgiving little Swedish town. Smedjebacken, the
town he had abandoned at age 15, no longer had a place for him. He needed a friend, and in Smedje-
backen he believed, there were none. But only a few miles away lived uncle Hedy and one cold Decem-
ber morning he decided that’s where he should be.

“Nonsense,” his uncle had said when Lars told of his plight. “Your father, my older
brother, I know he would understand. When you left home you were a little stupid per-
haps. But you followed your heart. There is no reason for you to feel any guilt.”

Lars stayed lived and worked with his uncle Hedy for nearly two years.
And during that time, the future of the next three generations of Widgets were
set, |

Lars learned how to manage his uncle’s 1,000-acre forestry operation. He
learned how to harvest, plant and sustain the forest in a way that nature
would generously give back everything you took away. And this lesson in life,
was perhaps the most important of all.

That could be questioned, though. It was also during this time Lars
met and fell in love with the daughter of a fellow logger. Her name was
Gretchen Svenson. She was beautiful. Blue eyes, flaxen hair and a charm that
equalled his mother’s.

They were married in Smedjebacken at 2 p.m. on Thursday, May 9, 1929.
The celebration that followed was a community affair. And so was the announce-
ment of their first-born child on February 7 the following year. It was an eight-
pound, 12-ounce boy named William Arthur Widget who, according to Lars, had
all the charm and good looks of his mother, and the brute strength and brains
of his dad.
Six months and four days later, Lars once again boarded a ship. But
the situation this time was much different. With wife and child, the blessings
of all, and a very clear destination in mind,
Lars headed west. His destination... Terrace,
British Columbia, in a country called Canada.
A travelling friend had told him about this
faraway place, and he had announced
firmly to Gretchen one day, “That’s
where we're
going to
raise our
kids.”