Alaina Urquhart
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Olav and Elizabeth's first child was Olav Jr.
He came a short time after they got married and he was followed quickly by two other children, Dennis and Sylvia.
Despite their whirlwind romance and growing family, Olaf Sr.
never really took to the whole marriage and family life.
So he was just frequently absent from home.
That was either due to his responsibilities in the military or his general uninterest in being a father.
We're not sure which or it was an amalgamation.
Kind of a little bit of both.
As a result, Elizabeth continued to live with her parents and the children were raised as much by them as by their mother.
I loved my grandparents.
And I still do, in fact.
Years later, when he reflected about his parents' marriage, Dennis wrote, because he did write a memoir.
by the way oh no yeah they always do they always do he wrote in the heat and uncertainty of war my father married my mother primarily on lustful grounds and ignoring some irreconcilable cultural and personality differences which doomed the match to failure oh fuck which is like weirdly insightful yeah that is insightful
Although their father was hardly ever home and really only saw the children on rare occasions, his presence or maybe more his absence was pretty influential on the family.