When an immigrant with no English found welcome in Minnesota

I seem to be at an age where I'm caring more about my parents' family histories, about where we came from and how we got here. It was just a couple of months ago that I was home for Memorial Day and visited the cemeteries where my relatives are buried near Morgan, Minn.

Part of this visit involved digging out some old photos (my parents actually have a few of family members and the farm from nearly 100 years ago) and notes, and just listening to my dad talk about his parents, grandparents and rural life nearly a century ago.

Dad's grandmother came to the United States from Denmark, alone, at the age of 18. (Imagine that trip. We're panicked about our daughter going off to college.) She originally settled in Nebraska, but her first husband was killed. There is some disagreement over whether he died from illness or in a construction accident.

By that time she had one child, my grandfather, the only child she ever had. She answered a newspaper ad placed by a gentleman seeking a housekeeper. His name was Jens (Jim) Johnson. She loaded up her son and moved to rural Morgan.

She and Jim Johnson eventually married, and they lived on that farm until their deaths. My dad and his sister where raised on the same farm. My parents are now retired, living in Morgan. No one has lived on the farm since the '60s, and a few years back it was sold.

I never met my great-grandmother. My dad told me that she never did speak English, and that it was quite common for new immigrants to settle together in small rural communities with people who spoke the same language. The rural area south of Morgan was primarily Danish Lutheran. My grandfather was the first and probably the only member of our family to be bilingual, speaking both Danish and English.

This brings me to the recent English-only resolution passed by the Lino Lakes City Council. Imagine how much more difficult it would have been for my great-grandmother if such a resolution had been in place when she moved to Morgan, Minn., in 1895. The deck was already stacked against her, a single parent who spoke only Danish. Can you imagine the anxiety she and her 3-year-old son must have felt when they first met Jens Johnson at the local train station?

Since September 2001, the United States has been threatened with unknown enemies and an uncertain economy. This leads to fear and a desire to circle the wagons. I understand that; it's human nature.

But it seems to me that real solutions lie in being more welcoming and in focusing on what diversity can add to our lives. Every time I hear someone speaking a foreign language I see my great-grandmother and her son trying to make their way in Morgan, and I thank God for the people who welcomed them to their new home.

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Brad Johnson, a purchasing manager for a public agency, grew up in Morgan, Minn.

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