house of the pulley-block maker ~ blockmakarens hus (iii)

..:: södermalm, stockholm ::..

In 1916 around Christmas another family moved into the lower apartment only being 22 square meters large. In those times Stockholm was troubled with a serious housing facility shortage and it was therefore rather common that poor families like Emilia Gustafsson, her husband Gustaf Adold Gustafsson and their four daughters could not afford a larger habitation.

On January the 9th in 1917 Gustaf Adold Gustafsson died because of a lung disease leaving his wife expecting their fifth child...

In July 1917 Emilia gave birth to her fifth child. A boy whose father, Gustaf Adolf Gustafsson, died six months before his birth, just shortly after the family had moved into the cellar parts of Stigbergsgatan 21. During the nights the youngest was kept warm by her mother who slept in a small bed in the kitchen.

This room -approx. 10 square meters- is part of the lower apartment counting 22 square meters and has been the habitation for the widow Emilia and her children in the beginning of the nineteen hundreds. The photo album lying on the table shows a picture of Emilia.

The sewing-machine and the items around it still echoes one of the tough ways Emilia tried to gather the money she needed for the rent and to support her children. Next to the sewing-machine stands a wooden bench that could be extended to a bed in which Emilia's four daughters used to sleep.