While I based the other characters of my story on different people I’ve known over the years, I based the character of Freja on a classmates Grandmother. Gary grew up in Hawaii and was of Hawaiian/German/Japanese/African decent. Needless to say, with a genetic background like that, he was a good-looking gent. What had always baffled him, as a kid, was why Grandma was a full-blooded African and just how she had gotten into the family. His parents would always dodge or skirt the question and told him not to worry about it. One day, when Gary was about 15, he and Grandma are the only two at home, so he figured he was finally going to get answers to his questions. When he asks her, he got this answer.

“Your Grandpa bought me in Zanzibar in 1910.”

So here’s the story from Gary’s Grandma about how she became a member of the family.

Grandpa, at 40 years of age, was the First Officer on a schooner out of Honolulu stopping over at Zanzibar. Figuring that he’d never get the chance to see anything like the Slave Market again, he goes for a stroll through the area. Randomly stopping to watch, he happens to look straight into the eyes of a 14 year old young woman, who’s about to go on the block. Grandpa is immediately smitten and approaches the auctioneer. After a bit of haggling on the side, Grandpa makes the sale and leaves with the young woman. The Captain, of course, is none too happy with what Grandpa’s done and refuses to let her on the ship. No problem, says Grandpa, I’ll take another ship home. Well, the Captain relents (not wanting to lose his First Officer) and everybody goes back to Honolulu.

This was embarrassing for Gary’s parents! Grandpa had bought Grandma. I think Grandpa should be commended for getting her out of there.

And before anybody goes…“Oh right, he’s 40 she’s 14 wink wink wink.” Grandma assured Gary that Grandpa was a perfect gentleman. He asked his sister if Grandma could live with her. Sister says sure and Grandma did until she was 18 and then married Grandpa.

To me, that is one of the coolest family history stories I’ve ever heard.