Aufrida Georgina (Hamilton) Widerquist

Aufrida Georgina (Hamilton) Widerquist (1861–1939) left her home in Jönköping, Sweden, at the age of 18 and traveled to Chicago where where she worked as a ladies maid and nanny for about 20 years. In 1899, after moving to Los Angeles,  she married Simon Benioff when he was a ladies tailor and she worked for him as a seamstress. She was six months pregnant with Victor Hugo Benioff at the time of their marriage, and they were divorced thirteen years later, never having lived together. She raised Hugo Benioff alone in Pasadena, California.

Aufrida used the name Hamilton instead of Widerquist after arriving in this country. We are not sure why.

We have very little information about Aufrida. Some of what we know comes from letters from Hugo to his wife-to-be,  Alice Silverman.

The following is a description of Aufrida written by her granddaughter Dagmar:

Aufrida Widerquist Benioff

From an email from Dagmar B. Friedman to Deborah Friedman, April 22, 2003

I can’t tell you much at all about my grandmother.  I don’t even remember seeing her although I may have once or twice. I don’t remember where or how she lived except that she was in a mental hospital for paranoia. She did not support my dad. As far as I know my father never received any money from his parents except a little child support from Simon when he was little. He used to have to play his violin in court to try and get money for his lessons. His father is said to say, “Let him be a plumber, I don’t want to pay for that.” My father lived in poverty. He said he was always hungry, and they often ate moldy bread. My father worked his way through college, and I guess worked as a child too. He also said one day he and his mother came home to find it burned to the ground. I do not know the cause. I assume my grandmother went to the Lutheran church. My father said that she was religious. My father must have gone too, but early on decided he was an atheist and stopped going. He remained an atheist and very anti-religious as far as I know.

I never saw my grandmother’s house, or tased her cooking or received a letter from her. My father was devoted to her, and I think scared of her. He said she would come around his house after he was married and peer in the windows at night uninvited. Who knows. Everything is so vague about her except the intensity of my father’s feelings toward her. She wanted us to visit her in the hospital, but we were not allowed. I think my parents were afraid of her illness. She was a seamstress and supported herself in this fashion. She made us several stuffed animals and the one I remember is a stuffed hen that I called Biddy. I took it everywhere. It had a calico back and a beige underside and looked like a chicken in a nest with no feet showing. I imagine that her English was not good as she did not have much schooling. Perhaps that is why she never wrote. I don’t know much about her. I’ll ask Elena and Paul. Perhaps they know more. But she was desperate that my Dad get an education and that he did.

My sister in talking to me about my temper tantrums as a child said that they were fierce and that she wanted me to stop screaming because she feared I’d be put in hospital somewhere. My childhood was at times difficult. Mostly I felt lonely and often not understood or respected.