Today’s Inland Empire Sun, from the San Bernardino, CA, area, carries a feature story on a remarkable Scandinavian woman who was once active in the San Bernardino Grace Brethren Church. Here are several excerpts. To read the entire story, click on http://www.sbsun.com:80/news/ci_8444037

As a girl growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Elida Marie Bond relied on an oxen-pulled cart for transportation and walked to school in temperatures that often dropped well below zero.

In the summer, the daughter of Swedish immigrants helped her family out on the 160 acres of land they homesteaded near the Canadian city.

Those early lessons in survival helped Bond deal with whatever came her way.

In fact, she coped so well throughout her life that she lived to be 100 years old.

Elida Bond, who celebrated her 100th birthday in June, died Feb. 28 in Highland. . .

. . . While living in Toronto, the spunky Bond was invited to be on the “Truth or Consequences” radio show. Her role on the show was to pick up marbles with her toes and drop them in a bucket.

The couple lived in Toronto with their two children until 1949, when her husband had a heart attack and was told to stop shoveling snow and move to a warmer climate.

She had a brother living in Fontana, so the family moved south.

They settled in San Bernardino and she took care of the children while he operated Bond Auto Parts. . .

. . . She kept busy in other ways as well. She was active in Grace Brethren Church in San Bernardino, teaching 4- and 5-year-olds in Sunday School and taking food to church members when they fell ill.