~~~A very special thank-you to JC for sponsoring my Grandpa's memorial~~~

My much-loved and adored grandfather. Al was the second of 13 children born to Swedish immigrants Alfred and Anna Johnson. He was born in Bluestone, Ohio in 1898 as the young couple made their way west to the fertile farmlands of the upper midwest.

Eventually, they homesteaded land on Devil's Lake, just east of the little Wisconsin village of Haugen. The farm they built is still family owned today. As a young man, grandpa worked as a lumberjack before becoming a master carpenter. In October, 1918 he received his draft notice and prepared to go to Europe as part of the American war effort. Fortunately, his report for duty date was November 11 (Armistice Day). I still have the dated notice. In 1922 he married my grandmother, Helen Manley. They had three children; my mother, Marjorie (1922), Roger (1929), and Kay (1932).

My grandfather was a hardworking, kind, and very loving man. I never heard him raise his voice to anyone and I can hear his wonderful, wonderful laugh even now. When I was a child, we would travel every summer from our home in South Florida to my grandparent's "house on the hill" in northern Wisconsin. One of my most treasured childhood memories is being awakened very early on a summer morning by the aroma of frying bacon wafting up to my bedroom. Grandpa and I were both early risers. I would hurry downstairs and the two of us would have breakfast together at the kitchen table overlooking the backyard where we would often watch deer, squirrels, chipmunks, cardinals and all sorts of wildlfe. We wouldn't say much... we just enjoyed the early morning view, a good breakfast, and each other's company. I miss him still.