WERA HOLMGREN, 97,

mother of Wera Clough and a resident of Green Valley since 1995, passed away at La Posada on Tuesday, May 5, 2009.

Wera Palm was born in the university town of Uppsala, Sweden, on July 24, 1911. She met her husband Gerhard, also a Swede, in Paris, France, in 1931, where her parents had sent her to study French. They were married in 1933 and made their home in Paris, where her husband became an executive with SKF, the International Swedish Ball Bearing Co. Wera was a homemaker, but also very active in the large Swedish community — diplomats, Swedish company executives, artists, sculptors and musicians.

In September of 1939, while in Sweden to give birth to her son Bjorn, WWII broke out and she and her two children were forced to remain in neutral Sweden while her husband had to stay in France. Wera only saw her husband three times in those six years, a very difficult time in her life.

When the war ended in 1945, she returned to Paris and her husband, and after finding an apartment in war-ravaged Paris, her two children joined them. Wera’s husband passed away in 1969 from cancer. In 1975, she decided to return to her homeland and her roots, and settled in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she still had family.

In 1984 she moved to the USA, to be near her daughter in the San Francisco area. She lived in a Danish retirement home in San Rafael for 6 years, but when her daughter and son-in-law decided to retire to Green Valley, she followed, and moved into La Posada/La Vista in June of 1995, and subsequently to La Joya Assisted Living in 2006.

She was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, her three brothers, and her son-in-law Jim Clough. She is survived by her daughter Wera Clough, her son Bjorn (Patricia) Holmgren, three grandsons, Mikael, Christer and Anders, their wives, and five great-grandchildren, all of Stockholm, Sweden.

Wera was 73 when she moved to the United States, and did not speak any English. She learned by listening to TV and reading newspapers. She was a true lady, so gracious and kind. Everyone whose life she touched will miss her.

Her ashes will be returned to Stockholm, Sweden, at a later date, to lie next to her husband. Remembrances may be made to La Joya Assisted Living at La Posada, 750 S. La Posada Circle, Green Valley, AZ 85614.