Curtiss, November 30th 1889.

Dear parents,

A few weeks ago I wrote to Johan and now I will write to you again. I should have written before to announce the birth of our son, but I did not get around to it. I will now tell you all about what happened when I gave birth to our little boy. It was Saturday, October 12th , when Eline and Iver held their wedding. It was to be in the evening, with dancing at night. I felt well when they were leaving. I had not thought of going myself. Mathias said he could also stay home, but I wanted him to go because I did not think I would give birth before the beginning of November. And so he left. I had done a lot that day. I baked lefse and I baked Jewish cakes and I cleaned the house. When I was done at my place I went over to our neighbor, Sorlien, and milked their three cows, as Kari was also at the wedding. But her husband and children were at home. When I came home my back ached and I felt tired. At nine I wanted to go to bed. But then I got so cold my teeth started chattering even though the room was far from cold. I got up again and put more wood in the stove, but did not go to bed again. I was up and on my own until midnight. Then I walked over to Jane Sorlien as it was a moonlit night, and I asked him to go to Mathias and tell him I had become ill. He left and soon both Mathias and Kari Sorlien returned. I then grew worse and worse. But I was not in hard labor until the morning. At six labor started. At eight Mathias sent for the doctor. He doesn't live further away than he could have made it in a couple of hours. But at ten it was over without the doctor. But then the placenta didn't come. So we waited for the doctor all day, but he was away somewhere else and did not come to me until late in the evening. But I was not so sick. I was soon well again, but did not get up until eight days later as I had Sina Kankerud to look after me. When the boy was five weeks we had him christened. And you will be surprised to hear I called him Axel. But Mathias liked the name and so we called him that. Nils Ostreng and his wife were at Eline's wedding and the day after Axel was born they visited me, too. Axel was big when he was born. And now at seven weeks he has grown big and heavy, but he is not completely well right now. He has an earache, so he is in a bad mood. I have to sit holding him as I write this letter, so my handwriting is bad.
Sina has moved out again. She is at the hotel here in Curtiss. I had thought she could have been here this winter. But as Mathias is away in the woods he got a fifteen year old boy, Arne Olsen's son, to be here with me and look after the cattle. Because now Mathias has bought another cow that had a calf this fall. He bought the calf too, a heifer. So we have four animals this winter. And as the cow I already had, who will be calving in April, still milks a lot, you can imagine I have enough milk this winter.
Mathias is no further away than he comes home every Saturday evening. I have received Ingeborg's letter and read that mother wonders if she will ever see me again. This is not impossible. If God will allow us to live long enough it might happen. I would love to show you little Axel. And how fun it would have been had I been close enough for you to come to me with porridge when Axel was born. I was given cakes and other goodies, but no porridge.
I here add my heartfelt greetings to everyone at the Voldslien farm. I promised Randi I would write, but nothing has become of it. I haven't written to Kristiane or Hanna either. I wonder if Kristiane is married? As we are getting close to Christmas when this letter arrives, I also want to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year, as I will not be sending any more letters before Christmas. But in a few weeks I will write again. I hope this letter will find you healthy and well, and finally my dearest greetings to father and mother from me,
your daughter Randi

Write again soon and tell me all about how you are. You cannot imagine how much fun it is for me to receive a letter from you.