On the 6^th of October 1809, Jonas Lundström married a maid called Katarina Hagen the daughter of Anders. They married in a church called Kristina, it was located inside of Jönköping. Together they had six children. Amalia was the fourth child, and she was born the 8^th of  November 1824.

When she was at ten years of age she lost both her parents, her brothers, her sisters and her other relatives as they died because of a cholera epidemic that spread during the 1930s.

1852, when Amalia was 28 years of age she got her first job as a maid, she then worked in Jönköping, when she turned 31 the family that she worked for, moved to Gränna, so Amalia had to move with them.

Here she met the widower Anders Eriksson, he was the owner of the south customhouse. They get married 1857 and the year after this Amalia gives birth to twins, but one of the babies is stillborn. Just at this time her husband is very severely sick in dysentery. He dies one week after Amalia has given birth to their baby. Once again she is left alone, but this time with her little daughter Ida. “No one is as lonely as I am” she often said to her daughter.

The manufacturings of candy were one of the first careers, where women could work as a self-employed person. Amalia was now a sophisticated and productive candy and bread baker and now when the freedom of trade was introduced in the middle 1800s, Amalia saw her chance tobe able to support herself and her daughter Ida. She went to the administration to ask for the permission to produce the so called peppermint candies called ”Polkapigs”. 1859 she got her permission.

Amalia started her production in the kitchen behind the hotel reception. She did not only bake the pepper mints but other candy types as well, that she placed on trays and plates inside the living room, also inside chest of drawers, inside the living room inside the hotel reception house. There she waited for someone to come and buy them. The peppermints in the form of a stick, was only made for the weekends and for red-letter days. What Amalia enjoyed to produce the most was assorted sweet and chocolates, confectionary for wedding or funerals. Her business was a success and she became a little rich on her production of sweets, today she can be described as the most important woman in the city of Gränna.

For her genial idea for the candy production, the king and queen, Gustan Adolf and Margaretha, 1915.

Amalia Still Lives

74 years after her death, the 7^th of June she was honoured with a bronze statue in the south park just outside the hotel. And every year someone receives the Amalia honour prize.