Obituary of Alice Nelson

Alice Nelson of Lindsborg, Kansas passed gently into heaven on October 7, 2014. She resided at Bethany Home for seven years, enjoying every activity available. Bible study, movies, exercise, trolley rides, music events, and senior center lunches. In the community, she was a member of Salemsborg church, Swedish club, a local book club, and American Legion. Born on May 25, 1921 in Englund, Minnesota to Peter Gustav and Florence Berg Carlstedt, she was the second of ten children. Survived by siblings David, Grace, Rhoda, and Jim, she has joined her predeceased siblings, Margaret, John, Paul, Faith, and Meri in heaven. Her husband, Armour Halstead Nelson of Smolan, Kansas died in 1993. She leaves behind 23 nieces and nephews, including her fortunate godchildren, Tim Carlstedt and Linda Fredrickson. Alice grew up in her father's parsonages in Englund and Detroit Lakes, MN. She attended Minnehaha Academy, Lutheran Bible Institute, and Augsburg College in Minneapolis. At Bethesda Hospital School of Nursing, she graduated valedictorian in 1944 and joined the Army Nurse Corp. Commissioned second lieutenant, she trained at Camp Carson, Colorado; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and Fort Lewis, Washington. As WWII tapered down, she was stationed at the army's Shangri-la hospitals: Ashford General Hospital in White Sulfur Springs, WV and Pratt General Hospital in Coral Gables, FL. She learned to dine, golf, and travel. She was separated from 20 months' service on December 7, 1946. Alice obtained her baccalaureate of science in nursing from Augustana College in 1948. Recruited to head nurse at Crippled Children's School, Jamestown, ND, she taught parents with a cerebral palsy child how to provide daily routines, good food, supplements, exercise, immunizations, dental, and vision care. Just like normal kids. She stressed these children's emotional need for love, self-discipline, and independence. One of Alice's first publications was about her favorite Bible verse. Dated 1948, she had just learned that her brother Paul's remains had been found near Aachen, Germany. She wrote "There are many verses in the Bible that I love, but the whole 103rd Psalm is like one big verse of praise in my heart. I have asked that it be read atmy funeral. A friend of mine did not understand how I could be so happy at the news of my brother's death. But I was ecstatically grateful to God for releasing me from uncertainty. I knew that my brother was in God's hands. Every verse of Psalm 103 seemed to express God's love and understanding of our limitations during the short time we live on this earth. What joy!" She was invited to be head nurse at the new Hospital School for Severely Handicapped Children in Iowa City, IA. A year later, 1951, she sought her master's degree in nursing from University of Chicago. She learned to observe children at hospital, pre-school, and home; only interacting with them as the child initiated. This one course altered her world. "By the time I finished, children were whole different creatures than before and they fascinated me. I was in the right place and God had led me to it." She published "What Makes Stevie Drink?" and "A Lesson from Tony". Living in an international dorm, active in the Lutheran Student Association, she met Armour Nelson, her Kansas cowboy. He left her poems, flowers and love notes after each date. Under auspices of the Lutheran World Foundation, she joined a group of students that toured Europe on bike in 1953. Decades later, she published "Post-War Europe Through the Eyes of Youth". Marrying in 1954, team Armour & Alice stepped into the arenas of health care and academia. He, a liberal arts professor and she, a nurse, educator and writer, lived in Moorhead, MN (Concordia College) and Thousand Oaks, California (California Lutheran College). She helped develop a church nursery and an international language village. She participated in College Women's League, Women's Missionary Society, Lutheran Church Women, Healing Ministry Committee, College Health Service, Child Abuse & Neglect, American Scandinavian Association, California Nurses Association, League of Women Voters, and Head Start. Six years of private duty nursing again stimulated intense observation and learning. She and Armour learned to relax and enjoy life at their desert home in Landers, CA. World travelers throughout their lives, they've visited everywhere in the U.S., Sweden, England, Scotland, Norway, Switzerland, France, Ethiopia, Egypt, Iceland, Spain, and Austria. In 1979, they spent a memorable Christmas Eve with Rhoda on a flooded mountain road in Papua, New Guinea. Hoping for a slower life, they moved to Lindsborg in 1990 to be close to Armour's family, Salemsborg church, Bethany College, and Bethany Home. Now, in the words of her nephew Joel, "As we look through the beautiful pictures of Alice's life, they take on extra significance since she has gone. Our lovely aunt! She was ever the thoughtful one; ever the questioning, feeling spirit; looking at the world through the lens of a loving God. Her feelings and thoughts were always indivisible, and the long arc of her spiritual questing bent always in the direction of curiosity about and love for her fellow human beings. Foremost among those was her cherished husband Armour. Who among us husbands could help but envy the devotion she lavished on him, even long after his own flight home to God? We Carlstedt cousins got generous helpings of affection from her over the years. Alice, our dear Aunt Alice! We thank you! A funeral service will be Tuesday, October 14, 11:00 am at Salemborg Lutheran Church, Smolan, burial following at Salemsborg Lutheran Cemetery. Memorials may be designated to the church, Bethany Home, Bethany College, or California Lutheran University in care of Christians Funeral Home 103 N. Washington, PO Box 386, Lindsborg, KS 67456. Online condolences at www.ChristiansFuneralHome.com