|
|
|
| Asta and Joe at Santa's Village on Artic Circle |
The second saga was a trip to visit our family relatives in Ahtari, Finland. Thanks to my mother's cousin Oliver Hill, Joe Hall was able to locate our Finnish cousins. When Joe and his son departed from Helsinki north to visit his cousins a cascade of thoughts passed through his mind. His mother's stories of life in Finland, the history of the Russian-Finnish Winter War of 1940 and the poverty of post World War II Finland. Obviously, Finland has changed, but the memories linger.
After a day drive from Helsinki Joe and Eric arrived in Ahtari and met their cousins. It was literally a generation and worlds apart from the last time Mildred Hall had visited Ahtari. What followed was a whirlwind trip in family history. Joe's cousin Asta and her companion Jarma and their parents treated Joe and Eric as the proverbial long lost American cousins. Each day was another exploration of Finnish culture and family history.
|
| A very casual picture of our Finnish cousins, Joe Hall lower right, Eric standing second from right |
Asta's sister, Anu, lives in the far north of Finland and after two days in Ahtari; Joe, Eric, Asta, and Jarmi departed for the village of Ranua about 50 miles or 75 kilometers south of Rovaniemia and the Article Circle to visit Anu, and their daughter newly born daugther Ronja. The trip was another adventure and the hospitality was again wonderful. A quick trip to the Article Circle and the World Santa Claus Headquarters, museums and many other sites. The land of the midnight sun allowed form many late night visits.
Enough can not be said about the wonderful time shown Joe and Eric by his Finnish cousins, they shared with Joe and Eric a family tree, which took the family history back to 1812. It was a wonderful ending to the family saga and the wonderful beginning to new memories.
After leaving his cousins Joe and Eric drove north to Norway, down the beautiful Norwegian coast, across Sweden, and then back by ferry to Finland, another quick visit with the cousins in Ahtari and then back to Helsinki.
|
| Eric and Christine while visiting Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the summer of 1997, sign near Washburn, Wisconsin |
Upon the return to Helsinki Joe and Eric visited some family friends, Mirjami and her husband Pentti.
Mirjami had been an exchange teacher in San Diego in the early 1960's and became friends with Mildred Hall and over the
years Mildred, Joe and their families had kept in contact. It was enjoyable to have such old acquaintenances in
Helsinki. Thanks to Asta, Joe and Eric also met other cousins in Helsinki a fun beginning and ending to this family adventure.
Home