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Show ON TO THE VALLEY The widow Bodil, her son Christian, and Wilhelmina, were placed in one of the relief wagons that started for the Salt Lake Valley. When they reached the Weber River the two young men drivers of the wagon in which they rode left the company and started off on their own along the river route. Because of broken ice and deep snow on steep river banks the wagon was unloaded and loaded many times, and the two young drivers were two weeks working their way through the canyon, arriving in East Weber on 21 December 18 56. The other relief wagons had reached Salt Lake about ten days earlier, so again, the widow and two children had been the victims of extremes in their mounting tribulations. Since saying goodbye to her parents and family in Denmark, that day in 1855, adversity had followed Wilhelmina, but regardless of her disappointments and delays and in spite of deep pangs of loneliness and intense hunger in unusually cold weather--she was preserved, and her arrival in the valley fulfilled her mother's dearest dream. REUNION The two daughters and three sons of the Madsens who left Denmark the previous year had not heard from their parents (Bodil and Lars) and were surprized to learn that they were among the members of the ill-fated late companies. They rejoiced in reunion with their mother and young brother, and met 20 |