Advent Calendar: Margaret Hansen

Margaret "Maggie" Hansen Hillinger aka Nana

Born 1919, Died 2010, aged 90
Lived in: Cleveland, Illinois; various locations in the US and Germany during and just after the war; Frankfurt, Germany; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle, Wa
Married: Sam Hillinger
Children:
ED Hillinger
HD Hillinger
BJ Hillinger
CJ Hillinger

In 1919, Margaret Hansen was the first child born to Holger and Oline (pronounced Oh-lee-nah) Hansen, two first-generation immigrants from Denmark. The family lived in Cleveland, Ohio, where Holger worked as a contractor building houses. The family was happy, and Margaret soon had a younger sister, and then a brother. But in 1929, her mother fell ill, and soon died of pneumonia. Holger was devastated. He moved all three children in with his younger brother Alfred while he built a new home for them all to live in. Shortly after moving into the new home, he married again, a woman by the name of Rose, who had two young daughters as well. Maggie didn't get along too well with her new stepmother, and when the chance to go off to boarding school was offered, she took it eagerly. She attended the Andrews School in a nearby town, and received a first-class education there. By the time she finished her schooling, the Depression was beginning to ease, and one of the school board members found her a job as a clerk in an insurance company. When the War started, Maggie was eager to do something, and as soon as the opportunity to become a WAC was offered, she signed up along with her younger sister, Marilyn. Maggie spent the war moving from base to base, and eventually earning a rank of first Lieutenant. After the war ended, she and Marilyn volunteered to go to Europe to help with the post-war efforts. While on a well-earned break to St Maritz, Switzerland, she met Sam Hillinger, an enlisted man who was on the trip as well with a group of friends. The two were inseparable during the trip, and after both had returned to their bases in Germany, the two continued to see one another. In June of 1948, the two were married. They settled in Frankfurt, and a year later, their first child was born. As soon as they could, the new family returned home to the United States, and Sam got a place at Ohio state, earning a degree in Accounting before the family moved to what would become their home: Seattle, Washington. Sam went to work while Maggie set up their home, now raising two boys, and the couple soon had two more children, this time two girls. The settled eventually in a large home in North Seattle, raising their children there, and Sam eventually set up his own CPA practice. The two were comfortable, and continued the love of both skiing and traveling that had begun with that first trip to Switzerland. They both remained quite active until Sam's death in 2000. Maggie remained independent even after Sam's death, though she began to slow down. She died in 2010, shortly after meeting her second great-grandchild, surrounded by her family.