Born on 8 November 1836 in the town of Fakse, Charlotte was a daughter of Peter Christian la Cour (no. 53) and Caroline Jacobine la Cour, and she worked as a teacher at the Kold girls’ folk high school* in 1868 and 1869. Charlotte married Hans Bernstorf Lillelund on 30 November 1870. Hans was born on 24 December 1827 in Koustrup, a village in the Thy region, and his parents were Anders Nicolai Lillelund and Kirstine Elisabeth Lund. Hans graduated from the Viborg school at the upper secondary level in 1846 and earned a master’s degree in theology in 1854. In 1855, he founded a girls’ school in Thisted, but closed it again in 1860. He subsequently worked as a private tutor in the household of Dr Callisen at Norslund, a farming estate near Aarhus. He served as a stipendiary curate* in Øster and Vester Assels in 1866 and became pastor for the Frøslev- Mollerup parish in 1869 and pastor for Tæbring-Outrup-Rakkeby in 1878. He resigned on 30 June 1902 and was made a Knight of the Order of Dannebrog* on 22 July of the same year. Charlotte stood faithfully by her husband in his work as a teacher and pastor, and her importance in both their home and that of her parents show in the following song composed for her on her 80th birthday:
Days went and days came;
Home circumstances often shifted.
The poverty of the land in those days,
With people’s lives improving in the countryside,
found you faithful among friends,
And gave you pleasant days in your youth.
As a happy and fair bride
you left your mother’s home.
Pastor’s daughter – pastor’s wife!
Faithfully you guarded the home flame.
Always cheerful, gentle and faithful,
Pleasant it was to stay with you.
Hans died on 14 March 1905 in Hornslet. Christine survived him by two decades before dying in 1925. (Four children: the Frøslev Line.)
