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Bert Noorda

Photo supplied

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Magnus Holm

Photo supplied

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Many readers from Northern Utah and Utah Valley responded to an invitation to share their favorite family history stories and experiences. Here is one of those stories:

Looking back, I have realized that family history stories have had such a huge impact on me, and the way that I try to live my life. I want to be like my Grandpa, Bert Noorda, who mastered integrity at a young age, by not stealing an apple off a tree, even when his sister (who tried to get an apple, but stopped when she saw his tears), told him he would die early! Little did his sister (Marie Noorda) know at the time, but this same brave-hearted man, would one day die on a tiny island in Anguar, Palau, at the age of 25; giving his life for his country; saving the lives of the men who fought beside him. He left behind his wife, one son (my father), who was 21 months old, and another son yet to be born.

I also would like to have the fortitude of my Great, Great, Grandpa, Magnus Holm, who left his mother in Saxtorp, Malmöhus, Sweden, when he was only 13 years old, to join the saints in Utah. He made it to Logan, to live with an uncle, and helped build the Logan Temple. His mother joined him four years later, but died about a year later from Typhoid fever, when Magnus was only 18 years old. On her deathbed, Johanna made Magnus promise two things; that he would never smoke, and that he would do the temple work for the Magnus Stenback family, a family he and his mother had worked for in Sweden, who were very kind to them. Even though his circumstances were difficult, Magnus remained true to the promises he made to his mother.

These are just two brief glimpses, but these men have become heroes to me. Their legacy continues today.

Julie Nicholas