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Märit, N.P.'s first wife, was a dressmaker before she got married. She had a sister Karin, born in June 1849 and twin brothers Olof and Jons, born in 1856.
Nils and his wife and father were baptized that in September 1872. Nils describes the moment: "They cut a big hole outside the city where the baptizer Olaf (Olofsson) Olson baptized my father in the very coldest weather. (Olaf was nicknamed Soot Ole, from the town Sota in Rodon. Olof was Nil's father in law.) My father didn't want any clothes on when he was baptized. The place where the baptism was to take place was about a quarter English mile from the farm. How was this possible? Father had a great warm fur-lined coat. He put this on while he went down to the open place in the lake. They drove close to the place. Olson went down in the water and another person stood by the edge of the water and held up the fur-lined coat. Then my father went directly out of the coat and down into the water. And when he had been baptized he went right down in the coat again and went home and was glad. Someone will shiver with the thought of how cold the water was, but my father said that the water felt warm. Only the air was cold. But it only a moment's work." In 1874, Nils' father died at the age of 57. On January 9, 1875, my grandfather Nicholas Olof was born. (His given name was Olof Nikolas.) Another brother Paulus was born in 1873 but died a year later. "My mother, Anna Wik Molberg, told me her earliest memory was of her own mother spinning and teaching her a song, " Elvera's cousin Esther Christiansen wrote in 1988. "Anna sat on a little stool while her mother sang while spinning wool:
translated, "In the Bible is found a treasure/seek it, seek it." Mother was only two years old. Later at Wicklunds, she lisped "Uti Biblen finns en 'katt' -- meaning 'cat.' They couldn't understand what she meant, until her father N.P. Wik came to see her.
"When the mother Märit Olson Wik died, there were three children. Marie was two months old and went to live at the home of the lady who attended her birth. Nicholas went to another home and Anna went to live with Lisa Olson in Sunne. She was married to a Wicklund at the time but they had no children. As the years went by they had seven children. Lisa was no relative of Märit Olson. Lisa had a twin sister, Christina, who later became N.P. Wik's second wife.
"Märit Olson had a sister Karin Olson. She did not marry but lived by herself in Östersund. Her latter years were spent in an Old Folks Home. Her pictures show a kind and happy face. Before leaving for America, mother went to Östersund to see her mother's sister Karin. Mother was twelve when she came to America with her family.
"She used to take the little ones, Nicholas and Anna on a speedy horse to her mothers or neighbors when N.P. was away preaching.
"This seems to be all I have about Märit Olson except that Julius Wik told me once that Märit Olson had red hair. Do you think Viola resembles her grandmother?" (A letter from her Aunt Anna in 1943 to Vi said that Märit resembled Marie.)
On December 4, 1879, 28 year-old Märit died of puerperal (or childbed) fever two months after giving birth to Maria.
The photograph from 1874 is the only photo we have of Märit and N.P.'s father (standing) and is the oldest of N.P. Märit is holding baby Nicholas, who died in infancy.
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