| Name | Alma Carolina Grimsrud  |
| Birth | 17 Jan 1880, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
| Death | 1958, Centralia, Lewis, Washington, USA |
| Father | Christian Johannensen Grimsrud (1843-1924) |
| Mother | Johanna Hansdatter Larson Hvesser (1851-1881) |
| 1 | Charles Sverre Fischer |
| Birth | 15 Mar 1874, Toms River, Ocean Co., NJ, USA |
| Death | abt 1952 |
| Burial | Centralia, Lewis Co., Washington |
| Father | John Fischer (1827-1909) |
| Mother | Susan McCullough Adams (1832-1884) |
| Children | Ruth (1909-1996) |
After the opening of the Red River Valley for homesteading, only three months after his wife had died, Christian and his three daughters traveled by covered wagon to Grafton in the Dakota territories. He built a frame house 20 feet by 22 feet on a 160 acres in February of 1882. A year later Alma's father married Bertha Sirina Johnson. Bertha, feeling unable to care for all his daughters had Christian give the youngest, Jenny to her maternal grandparends to be raised. Nine months later Alma's half brother Martin was born. Alma grew up a farm girl on the vast Praries of North Dakota in a 440 sqare foot house without electricty or running water.
Alma left the farm at age 20 and worked as a waitress for about two years. Then the small hotel where Alma worked had been sold to a family with lots of teenagers so the new owners weren't planning on keeping any of the old employees. Alma told it this way, I said to Charley, "We are all losing our jobs, so I guess I'll have to go back to the farm...a couple of the girls are getting married." Charley replied, "Well I guess we could get married too." What makes it funnier is that she had previously never dated Charles twice in a row because she didn't want to be talked about.
Alma said the lowest time in her life was when she was a newlywed and she and Charles had just moved into a couple of furnished rooms. Charles had gone to work and she was looking over her new home. It had a gasoline plate to cook on and an "airtight stove" for heat. She was deathly afraid of them. She had married Charles because she had lost her job. She wondered what had become of her life. She had dreamed of a tall dark handsome husband and instead had little blond Charles. She dreaded being near either a gasoline plate or an airtight stove, now she was living with both. Then she said to herself, "I'm married for better or worse and it is up to me to make the best of it."
Alma and Charles had a daughter Ruth Alma born in West Bend Washington. Their son George James was born Septmber 21, 1916 in Centralia Washington .
Alma's motto was, "It is up to me to make the best of life." Make the best of it she did. Her husband Charles was able to do the things he enjoyed most, fish and read. She had her friends, the church, and her daydreams. The things she couldn't have she convinced herself that they did not matter. She really was a remarkable person.
Written and researched by Linda Rawles rawles@usa.net