Florence Marianne Anderson was born on Nov. 15, 1940, in Karlskoga, Sweden, where she grew up and attended school.

Even as a young person, she was always interested in the English language and Englishspeaking countries and a life of free-spirited adventure. In her early teens she earned money to attend a scout trip to the United Kingdom. Back in Karlskoga, she rode motorcycles and learned to fly gliders at the local air field. In her late teens, she moved to London, England, to work as an au pair and see a little of the world on her own.

In 1964 she became pen pals with Hans Anderson, a Swedish computer programmer. Over the course of their correspondence, they fell in love and married in 1965. In 1968, they moved their young family to America and eventually settled in California.

In 1980 the family purchased an undeveloped parcel of land in Mariposa, and over the years spent weekends and summers clearing the land and building a vacation home, which eventually became Hans’ and Flo's retirement home.

Flo was an avid, lifelong organic gardener, amateur naturalist, and creative spirit. She loved to laugh and make jokes, and had a great love of art. She was an accomplished ceramicist, pursued rock hounding and lapidary, photography, painting, drawing, and soft sculpture. She loved children and often volunteered at local schools and museums. She was a great believer in do-it-yourself, and was also an able carpenter and handy person around the house. She and Hans did much of the original framing, dry-walling, tile and general construction work on their Mariposa house, with the help of friend and neighbor Jerry Wooden.

Flo died of heart failure on Aug. 1, having been widowed just earlier this year. She is survived by son and daughter-inlaw, Georg and Pam Bellardi Anderson, daughter and son-inlaw Ulrika and Hal O'Brien, and her younger sister Saga Alving. She will be greatly missed, leaving a profound emptiness in the lives of her family.