HELGESON-BERG FAMILY
BERTINA CORNELIA BERG AND TOLOF DYBDAHL
BERTINA CORNELIA BERG & TOLOF DYBDAHL
ON THEIR WEDDING DAY
Tolof Dybdahl, born in Norway in 1888. His mother was Kari Tolofson, his father was Andrew Larson and he took the name Dybdahl. They married and had children in Norway. before coming to America via New York. They lived in McLeod, North Dakota and had three sons and 1 daughter.

Karl Dybdahl and Bertina's mother, Andrina Berg, were friends and both acted as midwives in McLeod. Tolof and Bertina were married about 1912 had two daughters, Alyda Cecelia, born June 4, 1913 and Clarice Theodora, born August 23, 1915. Kari Dybdahl acted as midwife for Clarice's birth and signed the certificate.

Tolof and Bertina (Bertha) lived in Enderlin and Tolof worked for the railroad and repaired cars in the shops there. One day, Tolof came home from work and they were talking about the terrible Flu epidemic and he said..."yes, and I think I have it". Bertha and Clarice also had the flu, but it was only Tolof that died. Mother remembers seeing them take her father away sitting upright in a model A Ford, they had his funeral outside, everyone was afraid of getting that flu in 1918.

Mother has only one vivid memory of her father....when he was coming down the alley toward their home after work....and she ran to him and he lifted her up on to his shoulders. A happy memory .

Poor Bertha turned to her family for help and because she was a great cook, she could always find work through the years. Mother remembers being in a cook car, she and Alyda sitting up on a shelf out of the way, and her mother telling them to be quiet and good while she cooked.

Tolof, Bertha, Clarice, and Alyda
While cooking at Hadigan's Restaurant in Enderlin, Bertha met her second husband, Arthur R. Shaw. They had two children, Janice Florine born March 14, 1921 and Arthur Raymond Jr. born October 15, 1923. When the children were still young, the terrible depression hit and the Shaws ran a rooming house. Bertha made lefse for the butcher shop and Clarice remembers helping to make that lefse everyday. They had to charge at the local stores, and because times were very tough it was often embarassing to have to go and get more food when they already owed so much. Money was not to be squandered...and that attitude has prevailed in my mothers generation. She can stretch a dollar to this day. However, one time she made a foolish purchase. Bertha sent Clarice to the store to buy her own shoes for her nice church dress, Clarice came home with boots....with a jack knife buckled to the side. She wore the shoes home, so they could not be returned. It is a fashionable thing these days to wear army boots with fancy dresses, but in those days, it disappointed Bertha.

Bertha ran Shaws Cafe in Enderlin and her daughters helped serve. Mother tells of one customer who always loved Bertha's pies, and ordered two pieces and then complained that they were too rich. They have lots of stories about that Cafe. ordered two pieces and then complained that they were too rich. They have lots of stories about that Cafe.

Alyda was the first daughter to marry, she married a sailor who was visiting relatives in Enderlin. Donald M. Malles was stationed in Long Beach, California and that is where Alyda went to live. They had one son, Donald Jr. Don was a Chief Warrant Officer and served in Africa after the war and they retired in San Diego, Calif . Alyda died in 1993.

After high school graduation, Clarice came out to visit Alyda, it was 1934. Clarice moved out to California in 1939, with her husband, Don Deal and their son David born in 1938. Don was a licensed mortician, but changed his profession and became a furniture salesman and had a store in Inglewood, California. They also had a daughter, Diane born in 1942..that is me!

Don died in 1964 and many years later Clarice married Gordon Lemburg. They met at Voit Company where they both worked and bowled on the Voit bowling league. They have been married almost 28 years and live one mile from me. Clarice was a good bowler and just quit this last season because of a leg problem. She keeps a wonderful house, shops, cooks and works the crossword puzzle daily. Clarice has two grandsons and two great granddaughters.

Janice also married a sailor, Robert C. Dodds, he was a Chief Radar Technician in the US Navy. They had three children, Douglas, Susan and Brian. They also retired in San Diego, California. Robert (Al) died and Janice lives in the same house they bought new in 1954. Her youngest son died 8 years ago, her daughter and family and also her oldest son and his family live nearby. She has 4 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.

Arthur R. Shaw, Jr aka Tarzy. He was a big guy and a fantastic baseball player in his youth. He was also a sailor, first in the Merchant Marine and then the U S. Navy. He was married to Pauline and has one son, Shawn Shaw. He retired as a Chief Boatswain Mate and lived in San Diego, Ca. until his death about 1972.

Arthur Shaw, Jr., also called "Tarzy."
Bertha's second husband, Art Shaw, died in 1945 and she went to live in Walcott, North Dakota, where many of her relatives still lived. She met Amund Amundson, who she probably knew as a youngster.

Amund's father and Bertha's uncle were both on the first board of trustees for the forming of the Walcott Lutheran Church. Walcott was the hub of Norwegian immigration from Hallingdal and many families homesteaded and farmed there.

It was in Walcott that I visited Bertha for a month in the summer of 1954., I was 12, almost 13, and I suppose a handful. She showed me how to fetch water from the town pump, I helped decorate the basement at the church for a wedding shower, I went with her to the Golberg farm to cook for Benny and Alfred after their sister, Clara, died, I had over one hundred mosquito bites, I had to use the outhouse, we ate mush for dinner, we drove through section roads with grasshoppers jumping in the car, I learned to crochet, we went out to the Amundson farm and killed a chicken which I refused to eat, we went to JoAnne Bolstads wedding shower, I spent a week in McLeod with Mary and Millard Wickoren and helped serve lunches to the trainmen, I went swimming in the Enderlin plunge on opening day, I had a haircut in a basement barbershop in Enderlin...they gave me a "ducktail" haircut and enjoyed the fact that I was Tarzy Shaws niece... Bertha led a simple and yet a wonderful life in those years...Amund was a very nice man. When we went to the church, I stood between them and was amazed at Amund's great booming voice....he put everything into that singing.

I talked to Bertha just before she closed up the house in Walcott, all her friends were dying and she was ill with cancer. Mother and I met her at Los Angeles Airport when she came to California, and a wonderful airport worker gave us a lift to the baggage area...Bertha looked very weak. She moved in to a house in San Diego with Art Shaw Jr. and his son Shawn. She had a few good months there, but finally had to go to the hospital where she died. I hear people talk about Bertha...and so many people liked her. She was a great cook and hard worker. She always encouraged people to take their children to church and read from her "daily devotional" every day. She did snore....and she slept with me when she came to visit. Sometimes I thought she had quit breathing altogether then she would breathe again...I do the same thing now..haha.

Clarice, Bertha (she is the mother of these three girls, Diane, is she the mother?), Alyda, and Janice
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