After the death of her parents, she supported two younger sisters Ida and Karolina by her late mother's trade: that of a corset seamstress.
After one of her sisters died and the other one left home to work in the theater, Eklund was affected by depression, which eventually reduced her to a homeless destitute.
[2] "Trasfröken" became a well-known part of Stockholm folklore through her appearance and eccentric behavior.
In folklore, she was rumored to have become insane of sorrow after having been seduced by a man from the aristocracy in the home where she once worked as a lady's companion.
[5] In October 1894, she was found sick in one of her huts and brought to the St Eric Poor House, where she died on New Year's Eve 1895.