the Nyberg family were probably regarded as upper-middle-class for their time. Maria and Johan lived in a fashionable apartment with high ceilings, ornate furnishings, and unusual for that time, the apartment had two bathrooms. The building was owned by Smyrna Pentecostal Church, the apartment building was beside the Smyrna Church, it had a very modern for the 1940s, an electrical intercom at apartment building entrance door, and Gerd remembers Maria always saying to her on the intercom ‘kära barn komupp‘
The Nyberg’s owned a bedding shop in Kyrkogatan (Church Street), Gothenburg
Britta, Maria’s daughter worked in the shop for many years and she ran the business when Maria retired. Britta eventually got breast cancer and the shop closed. Gerd recalls stuffing pillows with feathers on school holidays. Per, Maria’s son, did some work in the shop too, such as furniture repairs.
Johan Teodor Hellqvist, Maria’s husband, died in 1936 of Stomach Cancer when Gerd was 6 years old, but Gerd has one recollection of her Grandfather, he walked past her in the apartment on Parkgatten Street, when Maria introduced Gerd to him he nodded and kept walking to his small study desk. He was probably quite ill at that stage.
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