Our dear, sweet Mamma, Siv Katarina Sandin Lane, passed peacefully into the next life on Sunday evening, May 5, 2024, surrounded by family members.

See 9 photos

Siv Katarina was born in Gävle, Sweden, to Elsa Ann-Britt Östling Sandin and Anton Sandin. She had a beloved sister, Gun Boel Sandin Skytt.

Mamma had a bright, energetic, sociable nature. She loved the outdoors, especially the woods around her childhood home at Hagaström, and she loved Vittersjö, where she and her family picked mushrooms, blueberries, and wild strawberries in the woods.

She made friends easily and loved her friends dearly. She attended Flickskolan in Gävle and met lifelong friends there, and throughout her life, wherever she went, she collected and cherished friends.

She worked as a nanny in London, England. She attended Sprachen und Dolmetscher Institute, a language interpretation school in Munich, Germany and Bar-Lock Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. Even though she couldn’t speak Spanish, she took a job as a tour guide in Torremolinos, Spain. She learned quickly. She also spoke excellent Swedish, German, and English, --and she could get along in French, Norwegian, and Danish.

She was excited to be hired in Stockholm as a stewardess for Pan American Airlines. She moved to the United States where she was based in San Francisco and later in New York.

While based in New York, Siv met a handsome Pan Am flight navigator named Robert Anthony Leopold Lane --love at first flight. They were married in Gävle and settled in Miami, Florida.

Because of Robert’s career with Pan Am, Robert and Siv lived in interesting places: Miami, West Berlin, Germany; The Seychelle Islands; New Hampshire; back to Berlin, and then Windermere, Florida, where they spent several decades and retired. Two years ago, Siv and Robert moved to Lehi, Utah, to be closer to more family.

Mamma always spoke Swedish to the children, and brought them to Sweden each summer. With beloved relatives, they went crayfishing at Vittersjö, picked blueberries in the mossy forest, drank ice cold well water, water-skied, ate cardamom buns, and sat around a fire, roasting apples, telling stories and laughing, usually with Scandinavian jazz tracks or ABBA playing on a record player, or tape deck in the background.

Mamma had a beautiful laugh, and laughed easily. She was not afraid to laugh at herself. She would see the humorous side of ridiculous or difficult situations that other people couldn’t see, and other people irresistibly laughed with her.

She was a woman of faith. When she was a little girl, she prayed that she’d someday marry a man who believed in God, because most people that she knew did not. That prayer was answered.

Decades after her prayer, Siv and Robert’s dear friends Eva and Robert Wren introduced Siv and Robert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When Siv was 37 years old, she and her family were baptized into the church. For the rest of her life, she was a very active member, devoted to visiting church friends. She worked for years in the Orlando temple. She served in many callings, including Relief Society president, Young Women’s president and Stake Relief Society counselor. She spent hours preparing Sunday lessons and preparing elaborate decorations for church parties with themes that included gingerbread houses and Swedish Santa Lucia.

“Aren't we lucky?”

Mamma had an adventurous spirit! She took her mother with her on a trip around the world during her career as a Pan Am stewardess. Later, with husband and children, she visited Germany, Austria, Spain, France, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, England, and Sweden. She and Pappa took trips up and down the East Coast of the US and out to Utah. Mamma also adventured on girls’ trips with close friends from her youth.

She loved to take her local grandchildren (Kathleen’s) on outings and loved to visit her children and grandchildren wherever they went-- Utah, California, and the Czech Republic. She traveled to give loving service during pregnancies, births, graduations, or just because.

Mamma and Pappa loved cruises, and cruised many oceans, even retracing Ernest Shackleton’s exploration on a cruise to Antarctica. For Robert’s 70th birthday, Siv planned a surprise Disney cruise to the Bahamas that included all of the children and grandchildren.

Mamma was a hard worker. She seemed never to run out of energy, and could outwork and outparty her children. She was rarely sitting down, but was usually working for everyone she knew-- cooking, gardening, chauffeuring, supporting and encouraging.

Although she never worked full-time after being a stewardess for Pan Am, Mamma took part-time jobs between parenting and grandparenting adventures. She worked at Valencia Community College, at SteinMart and at Walt Disney World (mostly to get the grandchildren in for free.)

On Saturdays, Mamma loved to listen to “The Garden Rebel '' radio program while gardening-- always barefoot-- in her own lakefront paradise. There she created a butterfly garden, herb garden, a nature walk by the lake, a children’s beach with a little playground and a rowboat, and a stone walkway lined with Crepe Myrtle trees. She planted citrus trees, a banana tree, purple Hawaiian Ti plants, roses, aloe plants, palm trees, Bougainvillea, and a two-story bamboo grove.

She sprinkled bird feed on the lawn, inviting Lake Down’s cranes, ducks, egrets and other birds to feel welcome in her garden. She blended her love of photography with her love of nature by taking countless photos of sunsets, flowers, trees, and wildlife --from waterfowl and woodpeckers to lizards, turtles, and racoons.

She appreciated life. She observed small, beautiful things in life, and often expressed her observations and her gratitude. She often said, “Aren’t we lucky?”

She often invited people over for “a bite”. She loved to host family, local friends or out-of-town visitors, taking them to see local sights and serving freshly squeezed orange juice and homemade treats out on the porch by the lake. She thrived on hosting parties for her “empty nesters” group and “lunch bunch” groups, for church groups, the Central Florida Hagar Viking Scandinavian club, and hosted three wedding receptions at her home in Windermere.

Mamma loved to sing and she had a beautiful, clear voice. As a child she sang while hiking through the woods with the family in all kinds of weather. As a mother, at children’s bedtimes she would sing Summertime, Byssan Lull and När Trollmor Har Lagt de Elva Små Trollen. While chauffeuring kids and grandkids around, she’d sing Oh! What a Beautiful Morning, Food Glorious Food, Edelweiss, Do-Re-Mi, and Swedish folk songs. When she didn’t know the words, she’d “play” her mouth trumpet.

She loved anything Swedish. She insisted that the best things came from Sweden, especially strawberries, shrimp, butter, chocolate, bread, mustard and brown beans. Robert and Siv hosted Swedish midsummer parties at home in Windermere and loved the Scandinavian Christmas party in Orlando.

Mamma is survived by her children, Karin Lane Jaccard (Cameron), Christel Lane Swasey (Scott), Kenneth Alfred Leopold Lane II (Martina), and Kathleen Lane Lowe (Corey). She is survived by her grandchildren Annika Jaccard, Nicholas Jaccard, Max Jaccard, Christianna Osborn, Axel Burt, Adam Swasey, Sunny Swasey, Justin Swasey, Harrison Swasey, Katja Lane, Susanna Lane, Robert Lane II, Kyle Lowe, Erin Lowe, Gretchen Springer, Makayla Lowe, Hannah Lowe; a great-grandson Mikko Osborn, and two more great-grandchildren, due to arrive this summer.

God bless Mamma Siv. She is sorely missed by family and friends!

Heaven must now be an even brighter place.

******************

Memorial Services will be held on Monday, May 20, 2024, at the Latter-Day Saints Chapel at 1631 East 900 North, Lehi, Utah.

A viewing will be held at the church at 10:00 am.

The funeral service will begin at 11:00 am Mountain Time, 1:00 pm Eastern Time, 7:00 pm Central European Time.

Interment will be at Utah Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park in Bluffdale, Utah, directly following the funeral.

A live stream link to funeral services will be provided via Zoom. See below.

Here is a link to a video tribute to Siv by her granddaughter, Katja:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFMiHRAHa14

We express heartfelt thanks to the kind, attentive caregivers at Covington Senior Living for their service to Siv. Thank you to the caregivers and staff at Renew Hospice and for helping to make Siv’s transition gentle.