Greta was born on 4 August, 1909. When she was three years old, her parents divorced and she was sent to her grandparents at Dalarö. Her grandfather was a strict, unfriendly man, but her grandmother was very kind and took good care of Greta. When Greta was 8 years old, her beloved grandmother died and her father got his youngest sister Eva to take care of his daughter instead. Unfortunately, aunt Eva wasn’t kind and loving at all, and she treated little Greta harshly and indifferently. She let the girl take responsibility for getting up in the morning, for making her own breakfast and getting to school on time.

Then when Greta was 14 years old, her father remarried. The stepmother didn’t like her stepdaughter and treated her very badly. Sadly enough, Greta’s father also became less loving.

When Greta was 19 years old, she had a little halfbrother, Åke. The siblings were very fond of each other and got along well, despite being treated unfairly and harshly.

Greta wasn’t allowed to do her homework at her father’s desk, though no one else used it during the day. She was made to do her homework kneeling on the floor. Even so, she managed to persuade her father to let her graduate from school and take a secretarial course, despite her stepmother’s opposition. At the age of 25 Greta couldn’t stand living with her father and stepmother any longer. She moved back to her aunt Eva, though Eva wasn’t nice to her at all. Among other things, she used to slap her grown niece’s face.

From then on, Greta supported herself. She held a number of different positions as secretary, in, among other places, a shipping company. For a while, she worked for a company selling Hammond organs and she learned how to play them in order to demonstrate the instrument to potential customers.

During the second world war, the wasn’t enough work so the secretaries had several hours off each day during which they were allowed to take language classes. Greta studied English. By then, she already knew German, but she had decided not to study French, which she regretted later in life, since she might otherwise have been employed by the Swedish Foreign Office.

Languages and other countries and their cultures, interested Greta greatly. She also loved reading and was fond of animals, especially dogs and cats.

After the war, Greta decided to go to the USA and apply for work there. She took the opportunity of visiting some of her cousins who were living over there. Quite soon she got a temporary job as a secretary. She was staying in and working on Manhattan. For a while she was staying at the YWCA’s ladies’ hotel. She also frequently visited her cousins, For instance, she would spend the summers at her cousin’s summer house in Vermont, where one day she saw a rattlesnake on the stairs. (Someone carried it outside in a pillow case.)

In her spare time, she visited Greenwich Village, which she liked a lot. Once in a while she also visited Washington DC, a city she later described as a ‘nice little town’.

But the climate in New York wasn’t healthy and after a few years, Greta fell ill. That brought home to her the difference between the USA and Sweden. Since she lacked insurance, it was hard to be away from work. Unfortunately, she was unable to get permanent work, as a foreign citizen. Another problem was finding housing on Manhattan at a reasonable price.

Prudently enough, Greta had saved her return ticket to Sweden, so when she fell ill, she returned home. Right away she felt at home in Stockholm. The city felt small and familiar. From then on, Greta never moved away from Stockholm again.

She did however travel during her vacations, to Italy, among other places. In her 60’s Greta decided to study Italian. She took a course and practiced on her own. Her language studies were so successful she could use her knowledge during her travels in Italy.

Later in life, she at last got back in touch with her younger brother. By then he was married and had two daughters. Greta got along very well with her brother, sister-in-law and the nieces.