Afton May Christiansen was born to Peter Christiansen and Elnora Christina Jensen on 27 October, 1912 in Downey, Bannock, Idaho.  Her family lived in Idaho while she was growing up.  While attending high school in Downey, she met Elven Howard Nisson.  He was born to Norman Hans and Anne Marie Olsen Nisson on 8 October 1908, in Preston, Idaho.  Mother had been dating many fellows, another one named Howard even, but fortunately, Mother and Dad got together and were married in the Salt Lake Temple on 14 September, 1934.  I remember stories of how Uncle Orion teased her and the influence of her two older sisters.

Dad and Mother lived in Downey where Sandra was born on 2 March 1936.  Being the firstborn, there are many, many darling pictures of Sandra as a baby!  My father worked for Greyhound.  They lived in Holladay, Utah where Connie was born on 22 Oct.1941.  The family moved to Burley, Idaho where mother was busy in PTA and other community involvement, as well as being busy in the church.  She was Primary president until Dad was made the Bishop of the ward.  Vickie was born in Burley on 5 March, 1946.  It's exciting being little and having your Dad be the Bishop.  I well remember times he would go to do some work on the church welfare farm near Jerome and he would take me with him.  Mother and Dad belonged to a church study group in Burley and made many very close, warm friendships.  I remember a vacation Mother, Sandra, Connie and I went on to San Francisco to visit Aunt Bea and Uncle John.  It was the first time I saw the sun set in the ocean!

Our family then moved to Bountiful, Utah.  Elven was born shortly thereafter, 5 November, 1954.  Dad passed away on 23 Dec 1958.  I was too young to realize how hard this must have been on Mother.  But to me, she was very strong and had unshakeable faith.

Mother was very spontaneous.  I remember once she decided we would go to California to visit Sandra.  We made the decision and left in only 6 hours.  She loved riding.  Many, many weekends we would throw a few things in the car and take off.  Once, for example, she read in the paper that bear grass was growing in Wyoming.  With only a newspaper photo in hand, we set off to find bear grass.

Christmas time was always wonderful at our home!   There was a special glow that Mother always brought to that season of the year.  Mother was a terrific grandma.  Our children have many mementos of trips here and there with Grandma- a rock, a bell, a photo, a ticket stub. But best of all are there fond memories of hearing stories, staying up late, ice cream, candy from her "Grandma Purse," and on and on.

Mother truly loved little children as evidenced by her choice of profession after Dad passed away.  She was owner of a day-care center named Kiddieville.  She influenced for good the lives of many children and their parents.  Although we truly miss our parents, we are happy in the knowledge that they are once again together and are watching over us from heaven.
 

Mother enjoyed Utah. We had a brand new home and lots of good neighbors.  I think Mother was a bit awed by the mountain when we first moved to Bountiful but she later loved watching the big mountain behind our home as the seasons changed.

She became a new mother rather late in life and my brother Elven certainly made a change in our household.  We were all ecstatic over him.

When Daddy died of cancer when I was 16, Mother herself needed to have a cancerous tumor removed.  Her life was very different from then on.  She began a nursery school and no one could have asked for a better surrogate mother for a pre-schooler.  There are twenty years worth of children in Bountiful who can thank Mother for their very good start in life.  She dearly loved the children and her patience in dealing with them was never ending.  Mother was the kind of person who never told a child sharply to leave the room.  Instead she would say "shoo chickens."  They still left, laughing.

Mother's motto certainly should have been "BRING ME THE CHILDREN."