Finale

Time has come to read the last document of the three, sent to me by my aunt Carin. The paper is slighly yellow, translucent but quite sturdy compared to the thin air-mail paper on which Robert noted the details about Dagny’s surgery.

It’s not dated, but it must have been written on the 25th of April 1930, as it is an obituary over Robert. He died from heart disease on the 24th, as he held his beloved wife Dagny’s hand as well as the hand of a loyal chinese coworker.

The document is typed in black, the heading reads “Missonary Robert Bergling dead.” It is quite a blunt heading – and it’s different from how the missionaries tended to talk about their colleagues passing. They often used euphemisms as “He was called Home.” Or “He is at Home in Christ.” Though the obituary is quite long, it was probably written in a bit of a hurry – as it was published so soon after Robert’s death.

Old friends
The one and a half pages long text is signed “A.B,” which stands for August Berg, a missionary colleague who knew Robert well and had worked together with him. August went out as a missionary in 1890, two years before Robert set foot in China.

At the time, August Berg was the housparent at the missionary home Duvbo, where Robert’s son Rudolf – my grandfather – lived since a few years. Thus, August Berg was a sort of stand-in father to Rudolf. Rudolf had not seen Robert for three years, but his older brothers Martin and Vilhelm as well as his sister Dagny-Edla were in China at the time of Robert’s passing.

The missionary home in Duvbo in the 1900s.

Today, the missionary home is a housing association, but has kept its original charm.

A well-used text
August’s text was featured in several publications – not least in the missionary paper “Sinims Land.” I also found a clipping from a Christian newspaper called “Svenska Morgonbladet,” where the same text was published on the 26th of April, and several other obituaries over Robert “loan” expressions and descriptions of Robert from this very text.

The missionaries in China had been stricken by four deaths within a time frame of 8 months and August had written about them all. He was indeed one of the elders and had seen many missionaries come and go, though it does not seem like he got used to writing about their final journey.

The obituray
He writes:
“On the table in one of the rooms in our home, lies a small book of remembrance, bound in Chinese yellow silk. We received it as a gift from our friends when we left China. Each one of them have written a few words in it as a remembrance. On the first page, the initiator of this loving gift – Robert Bergling – wrote the following:

The obituary in “Svenska Morgonbladet,” Saturday 26th of April, 1930.

It is not whithout a touch of melancholy, that two friends part ways,
though when this was what our Father wanted, we said: Thy will be done!
As the moment of farewell nears, it feels quite hard
If tears not burn on our cheeks, in our hearts they sting,

August continues:
“On the 24th of April I received a telegram from Mrs Bergling saying her husband Robert was ill with heart disease. The following day another telegram arrived stating he had died later on the 24th.

When Robert Bergling passed, a long day of work ended, first in his homeland and then on the missionary field. In October 1892 Robert sailed from London to Shangahi, together with four other members of the Swedish Mission in China. At the time, he was 25 years old. Before he arrived, he had made sure he knew where he was going to work. Like Paulus he put an honour in being able to spread the Gospel where this had never been heard before.

He got his wish. He worked ardously – but with many rewards – in the towns of Hancheng and Hoyang in our northern district. This is where he has served faithfully all these years, with exception of the times he has visited his home country to rest. He is the only one of our missionaries who has not been transferred to another station, but instead he has stood firmly on the ground where he first commenced his work. The working day of Robert Bergling was as long as it was adorned with success. The district, where he worked, now has one of the larges congregations. The number of baptized amount to over one thousand. The industriousness, patience and dutifulness was rewarded. It would take too long to go into detail as to what Robert Bergling’s work entailed, but one must note that beside spreading the gospel, he also conducted an incredibly large opium asylum during 38 years. A Swedish man, who visited the field, later published a book, where Robert is called the “Swedish opium doctor.”

Robert was not a man one got to know immediately. He did not trust others quickly. But once his heart opened up, one found the richest of treasures therein. He was an intense person. He could not do enough for the Chinese. Time meant nothing. The hours of the night and the last penny in his pocket – he could sacrifice all of it, even at the cost of his own convenience and the comfort of his family. He was a slow thinker, but the result of this was that he did not have to regret decisions he made or actions he took.

Love and trust was bestowed upon him by the Chinese. When he moved from Hancheng to Hoyang – at the time Hoyang was a outstation to Hancheng – a large rememberance stone was raised in his honour, much against his will. But it stands there, bearing witness of how much he meant to them.

I vividly remember a meeting in the congregation in Hancheng. The matter at hand was if they should exclude a faulty member. I can still see it before my eyes – how Robert suffered at having to make such a decision. Yes, he was that kind of a man – a mourner of souls and a shepherd.

Tuesday the 29th, his dust will be consecrated to rest in Chinese soil. He was just about to come home to Sweden to rest. His rest came sooner than expected.

Robert Bergling was born in Forssa, in Södermanland, on the 29th of July 1867. He was united in marriage to Dagny Aass from Norway and left five sons and a daughter, a daughter-in-law, two grandchildren as well as brothers and sisters behind. The great joy of seeing three of his sons and one daughter as missionaries in the field was granted him. And not least, his son Ville came back to the childhood home in Hoyang about three weeks before Robert’s passing. At the time, parents and son had been apart for about eight years.

In their mourning, the next of kin stand together with a great crowd of friends and thousands of Chinese. We thank God for the loan and grant our faithful worker both rest and rewards.

A.B.”

A wedding photo. Robert is the man furthest in the back, to the right (No 1), Dagny is sitting front row left (No 6), August Berg is standing just below Robert (No 10). Olga is No 4. In the front, middle, we find the wedding couple Marie (?) and Hugo Linder.

Aftermath
After Robert’s death, Dagny went back to Sweden – which must have been a comfort to my grandfather Rudolf. At least, now he had one parent present in his life and in Sweden. Following Robert’s death I have found some articles where Martin, Dagny-Edla and Morris write about their father, but they are not heavy with sorrow – instead they carry a more thankful and life appreciating tone. Morris – the eldest son – actually went out to China to work as a teacher at the seminar in Yuncheng, only a year after his father’s passing.

Even though the children must of course have been very sad that Robert had passed, it could be that they saw him more as a leader of their faith, than as a father. They had not spent that much time with him over the years. All of the children, except my grandfather Rudolf, had been sent to Sweden to go to school when they were around 7 years old. After that, they had not seen their parents except for during the missionary vacations every seven years or so in Sweden.

Dagny-Edla wrote in a private letter, that she felt the day of her father’s passing was like a “wedding day” – she thought it was quite fantastic that her father now got to spend time with Jesus and all the old missionary friends that had gone before him to Heaven. I have not found any record of how my grandfather Rudolf took the news – but I assume he must have been quite stricken (with only 17 years old he was the youngest sibling), as he was probably eagerly awaiting the announced arrival of both his parents in the near future.

As the 24th of April nears and we count 93 years after his passing, my thoughts go to Robert, resting in China and August’s kind words “…once his heart opened up, one found the richest of treasures therein.”