Brita Tynning Aase

Brita grew up at Søndre Valler in the 1930s, with the nursery and farm work around her and a home full of offices and meetings. When the war came she was ten years old; those were the years her mother led the agricultural committee of Kvinnenes Arbeidshjelp and used Valler as a training farm for young women, while her father quietly supported intelligence work. The brothers arrived in time: Torstein in 1932 and Åsmund in 1942, thirteen years younger than his big sister.

In her choice of profession she followed her mother: Brita became a teacher (adjunkt). That is her occupational title in the farm and family history of Eidanger from 1984, and the name Brita Tynning appears regularly in the local newspapers of Porsgrunn and Brevik from 1946 onwards; in the summer of 1952 it even appeared in papers as far away as Stavanger and Sarpsborg, and in the teachers' own journal «Vår skole». What happened then is one of the trails the family can follow further in the newspaper archives.

In 1963 Brita married civil engineer Audun Aase, born 25 September 1930 in Haugesund, son of Bernt Aase. They settled in Bergen, and there they remained. With that, the modern Tynning family gained its western branch, in the county the family once came from. The children Tore, Torunn and Jenny Hild grew up in Bergen, with Søndre Valler as the holiday place and the family's gathering point at the grandparents', uncles' and cousins' in Eidanger. The three of them now have six children between them: Camilla (b. 1996) and Thomas (b. 1998) Endresen Aase (Tore), Sofie (b. 1994) and Henrik (b. 1999) Drange (Torunn), and the twins Brita and Lise Husby (b. 2008, Jenny Hild).

It is no coincidence that one of the great grandchildren is named Brita. The name goes back to her great grandmother Brita Tynning, born Østerbø, the wife of Isak on the Tynning farm in Brekke.

Where her brothers became farmers and politicians with names in the newspapers, Brita chose the classroom and the family. On the family's website she has been given the nickname «the family keeper», the one who upheld the relationships and traditions across mountain and fjord. That part of the story is found in no archive; it must be told by those who remember her.

The year 2000 was a heavy one. In January Audun died, 69 years old, and in November Brita also lost her brother Torstein. She herself lived a little more than five years longer: Brita Aase died in Bergen on 25 March 2006, 76 years old.

This chapter needs input from Tore, Torunn, Jenny Hild and others who remember her: Where did Brita take her education, and which schools did she work at in Bergen? How did she meet Audun? Where in Bergen did they live? What happened in the summer of 1952 that put her name in newspapers across the country? Which traditions was it she kept: the Christmas celebrations, the summers at Valler, the letters, the phone calls? And do photographs exist: confirmation, the wedding in 1963, family gatherings?

«Gårds- og slektshistorien for Eidanger», vol. 3 (1984), pp. 57–58: the children's birth years, Brita's profession, the marriage in 1963, Audun's background and residence in Bergen. The Death Register 1951–2017 at Digitalarkivet: Brita Aase, born 12.10.1929, resident of Bergen, died 25.3.2006, and Audun Aase, born 25.9.1930, resident of Bergen, died 15.1.2000. Digitised newspapers at the National Library of Norway (nb.no): matches for «Brita Tynning» in Porsgrunns Dagblad, Breviksposten, Varden and others 1946–1953. The chapters on Lasse and Åshild and on Isak and Brita in the family archive.