(from "Nerison and Bergene Roots and Branches" by Laurence Edward Nerison, 2003)
Asselina Amalia Stolee was born in Norway February 8, 1916. At the age of six her clothing caught fire from a brush fire. She was burned severely on one side from her waist to her feet to the extent that in some places all the flesh was gone. She was treated in a hospital in Bergen until 1886 when she was finally able to travel with her parents and brother Knut to America where they joined the rest of their family in the Dakota territory. She continued to be treated by many doctors in the Dakotas but the sores refused to heal. She was appointed Postmistress in 1901 and held that position until 1902 when she left for Deaconess Hospital in Chicago. In 1905 she left the hospital to join her parents who had now moved to Alberta, Canada. In 1910 her mother passed away, and in 1911 Amalia returned to the hospital in Chicago. Her father passed away in the fall of 1912 and she returned to Canada a little over a year later. In the fall of 1914 she had to return to the hospital as the skin cancer had spread. As a last hope she went to a cancer treatment center in Missouri but it was too late. She died in Chicago on Easter Sunday, 1916.

(from “Faith is the Subtance” family history by her brother Haakon Stolee)
AMALIA STOLEE
1878-1916
Amalia was born February 8, 1878, in Norway. When she vas six years old she was sent one day to bring lunch to her father and some of the othera who vere spading up a sort of peat moss which was to be dried and used for fuel. They also were burning old grass and rubbish. When sbe left to return bome to take care of her younger brother Haakon so that her nother could do her housework, she unvittingly carried a spark
fron the trash fire in the skirt of her dress. When she noticed that her clothing was on fire, she started running--up bill and down hill— until she saw a small puddle of water along the way. She lay flat on her stomach in the vater, covering her face uith her hands. Because she had run so far, the flames had engulfed her on one side fron the waist down to her feet. As she lay in the water, two men happened by and found her. By this time she was unconscious. She was taken to the best doctors in Bergen, but she was burned so deeply in places that all the flesh was gone. She suffered so greatly that they feared she would lose her mind. She was in a hospital in Bergen most of the time until she left with her perents and brother Knut for America in 1886.
She was attended by many doctors in North and South Dakota, but the sores would not beal. Because of this, she had bardly any schooling. Her brother Michael was her teacher at one time. She learned readily
and romembered what she read. She was gifted artistically and was a devout Christian. She was confirmed November 13, 1892. Because there was a deep sore under one knee, she limped slightly, but she got around and even taught Sunday School. She doctored herself with salves and ointments and worked as hard as any of her brothers and sisters, never complaining, in apite of all her pain.
In 1901, when the U. S. Post Office was moved to her parents' home, Amalia was appointed Postmistress,
a position she held until she left Dakota on November 13, 1902 to go to the Deaconess Hospital in Chicago.
At the hospital the doctors wanted to graft skin. The pastor of a church in Chicago asked for volunteers from his congregation for one square inch of skin. There were meny who volunteered, more than they needed. They took skin fron fifty people and grafted on her. Some of it grew; some fell off because there was too much "proud flesh." No one can imagine how she suffered. They said of her at the hospital that
there had never been a patient there so uncomplaining as she was. They thought a lot of her, and as soon as she could be up a little, she read and sang for the other patients and sewed buttonholes and mended for the nurses, While she was at the hospital in Chicago, her parents and family went to Canada (1903).
In 1905 she went home to her parents in Canada. She was so good to her wother, who at this time was getting up in years. Her mother often prayed to God that Amalia might "go home" because she suffered so much. In 1910 her nother passed avay, and in 1911 Amalia returned to the hospital in Chicago. While she was there in the fall of 1912, her father passed avay. She returned to Canada in 1913 or early 1914.
Amalia kept house for the Jacob Vikes family during the summer of 1914 when Jacob and her sister Anna went to Norway. That fall, before cancer had speead and the skin would no longer hold. She never returned home after that, although she did visit her brother Haakon at Dodgeville, Wisconsin, where he was a pastor, in the fall of 1915.
Of this visit, Haakon’s wife, Anna, had written as follows:
“In the early fall of 1915, Amalia came to Dodgeville to spend some weeks with us. She vas not very well because the skin cancer had started up again. But there were no complaints on her part. She was very kind and congenial to bave around in spite of ber physical condition.
She was a very intelligent person, keeping ber miod alert at oll times. She also kept her bands busy crocheting and tatting. She gave me some pieces of intricate and beautiful design. After Charlotte was born, I trimmed some of her little gaments with the lovely lace. She had developed her skills while lying on her face in the hospital.
Her stay with us was not long because it becane more and more evident that she needed to seek more modical aid. As a last hope, sbe vent to a cancer clinic in Missouri of which she had heard, but the doctors there found it vas too late."
So she returned to Chicago where she died on Easter Sunday, 1916, at the age of 38, after 32 long years of suffering. Before she died she often sang:
"O dear Jesus, when will you take me fron thie strange land home to Thee. I am so tired and sball find no rest until I dwell with Thee there in Heaven, where there burns no sore; when I on the golden streets sball walk. But if I em there to wear the crown, so must I also bear here the cross."
Haakon accompanied her body to Canada for burial with other loved ones.