C. Falls woman wins fame, family in reality show

Anna Mohr is a star in Sweden.

The Columbia Falls woman won “Allt for Sverige,” a Swedish reality television show, on Sunday. The program — translated into “Everything for Sweden” in English — pitted 10 Americans who wanted to reconnect with their Swedish roots against one another for the grand prize of meeting their long-lost Swedish relatives.

“It was so surreal to me that I won,” Mohr said in an interview Monday.

She added that she never expected to win: “During the course of the show, I was in most of the eliminations. If there were two people in the bottom, I was one of those two people. Every elimination, I thought I was going home.

“The fact that I won the whole thing is pretty crazy.”

The final piece of the final challenge in the “Survivor”-like show involved putting together a puzzle of Sweden.

“That’s how I got ahead and won, because I do puzzles with my kids all the time,” Mohr said. “I’m certain that’s what it was.”

With her puzzle victory, Mohr won the chance to meet relatives on her great-grandmother’s side in northern Sweden.

“It was very cool, because I knew this great-grandmother as a child,” Mohr said. “Her relatives still live there. ... Her siblings’ kids, my cousins, I was able to meet.”

The reunion was filmed for “Allt for Sverige,” so Mohr didn’t have much time to meet a lot of family members. But she flipped through photographs and newspaper clippings with them, visited a cemetery where other relatives were buried and established a connection with relatives she’d never met.

Since meeting them over the summer, Mohr has kept in touch with younger family members on Facebook and older relatives via email — and a standing invitation to visit has been issued to everyone, she said.

“I’d really love to get back there,” she said. “The invitation is open to them to get here, too.”

The “Allt for Sverige” finale aired at noon Sunday in the Flathead Valley — 8 p.m. in Sweden. Following the program, a major Swedish newspaper hosted a live chat with Mohr.

“It was just crazy,” she said. “There were thousands of people trying to live chat for the 40 minutes I was on there. I’m inundated with messages and stuff going on.”

Mohr is more than a reality TV star, however. She has become a voice of encouragement and hope for Swedish women who have suffered miscarriages.

Mohr miscarried before “Allt for Sverige” producers asked her to fly to Los Angeles to meet them earlier this year. Mohr told the Inter Lake in October she hadn’t wanted to go — she was still mourning the loss of her baby — but the casting director’s kindness convinced her to go.

That experience, which Mohr said she didn’t mention until the end of the season, ended up giving her time on “Allt for Sverige” special meaning.

“I lost a little bit of family at the beginning, and gained a lot of family at the end,” she said. “It was very personally meaningful to me.”

It was meaningful to many in Sweden, too.

“I have received so many messages from women over there that made all of it worth it. They could relate to what I was saying,” she said. “It showed a beautiful thing can come from sad circumstances, and I feel like I’m a little bit of a voice for this issue, which doesn’t get talked about over there.”

The entire experience was fantastic for Mohr, who all her life had wanted to go to Sweden.

“I think it was one of the most positive experiences of my life,” she said. “I’m really proud to be part of such a production. And I’ve heard from Swedes that I helped shape their view of Americans in a positive way, so I’m sort of a Swedish American ambassador, I guess.”

Read about Mohr’s time on “Allt for Sverige” and see photos from the show and behind the scenes in Sweden at www.facebook.com/ AnnaMohrAlltForSverige.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.