A photo of Robert and Martha (my grandparents) on their wedding day
The Young Couple and Their Dreams
Last Tuesday, I introduced you to my grandmother, Martha Olson, the inspiration behind my novel, When Time Stood Still.
Today, I'd like you to meet the young couple whose lives inspired the story — my grandparents, Robert and Martha Olson. Robert was born in 1891 in Minnesota and immigrated to Saskatchewan with the promise of affordable agricultural land around 1915/16.
Like most young couples beginning their lives together, they had dreams, hopes, and plans for their future.
When I was a teenager living with my grandmother, I remember hearing the story of how she first met Robert. She was just a young girl, not even quite a teenager, when she decided in her heart that he was the man she would someday marry.
And apparently, she was right! ❤️
Robert was considerably older than Martha. In fact, when they married in 1927, Grandma was just 20 years old, while Grandpa was 35. By then, Robert was already an established farmer, ready to begin a new chapter of his life with his young bride.
Life on the Canadian Prairies in the 1920s
The 1920s were a time of growth and opportunity for the small Saskatchewan town of Wynyard, where my grandmother lived.
Wynyard was a thriving agricultural community, with the Canadian Pacific Railway connecting the town to larger centres and providing an important route for transporting grain and other goods.
Farming was the heartbeat of the community, and like so many prairie families, my grandparents' lives revolved around the land.
Grandpa's farm was located in the Rushville district, just north of Wynyard.
Wheat was his main crop, although he also grew oats and barley. The farm was home to pigs, chickens, and cows, providing food and helping sustain the family.
It was a life of hard work, long days, and dependence on the land and the seasons. But it was also a life filled with possibility.
One Hundred Trees and a Dream
The year my grandparents married, 1927, Grandpa planted 100 pine trees around their farmyard.
One hundred trees!
Can you imagine the work involved in planting each one by hand?
But to me, those trees represented so much more than shelter or beauty. They represented a future.
In my novel, When Time Stood Still, I wrote:
"Each root and sprig a hope for the life we were going to build together."
I love that thought.
Each little tree planted with the hope that it would grow strong and tall, just as they hoped their marriage and family would grow and flourish.
They dreamed of raising their children on that farm, watching the seasons come and go, and building a life together surrounded by family, faith, and the land they loved.
They had no way of knowing what the coming years would bring.
The prosperity and optimism of the 1920s would soon give way to the hardships of the Great Depression. And for Robert and Martha, even greater challenges lay ahead.
But in 1927, they were simply a young couple in love, planting trees and dreaming of their future.
Sometimes life takes us in directions we could never have imagined
And for Robert and Martha, that was certainly true.
Next Tuesday, I'll share a little more about the family they were building and the events that would eventually change their lives.
Behind the Story is my Tuesday series sharing the real people, family photographs, and history that inspired my novel, When Time Stood Still.
If you'd like to discover their story through the fictionalized lives of Marta and her family, When Time Stood Still is available on Amazon.
I'd love to know: Do you have a story about how your parents or grandparents met? Or perhaps something they planted or built that's still there today?
