Heinsberg, January 28, 1969
Hello, Mom and Dad
Many thanks for the surprise package that Mom put together with Dad's help, with her warmest and most loving thoughts. Now Grandma can be sure that the children aren't cold, but then again, it hasn't been cold either. Unfortunately, the frosts here always ease far too quickly. The last one ended suddenly in the middle of the night, with the temperature rising from -15 to +5 in a couple of hours. The roads were covered with slippery ice, and Glanzstoff's work truck ended up in a ditch, so the midnight shift had to be hastily extended by two hours to keep the machines running. Silja, Mirja, and Anja couldn't wait at all, but pulled tights straight out of the package and put them on. I wondered to myself why they didn't complain about the itching or the heat until the next day. Silja said that she had always wanted blue ones like these, but until now she had only had brown and gray ones, except for Anja, who had received red ones as a gift. I always buy such boring, practical colours, thinking that they have to go with all their clothes, since they only have two pairs that match at a time. I always think tights are so expensive to buy, but it seems they were almost twice the price in Finland compared to here. One pair still had the price tag on it, even though the tags had been carefully removed from the others. Well, you certainly deserve a big thank you for them. And you also thought of me with warm socks. I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I don't think I need them after all. Regular crepe socks are really enough for the climate here and my limited outdoor activities. After all, it's only cold here for a short time. I'm sure my mother will have more use for those socks than I do. The children are outside for hours on end and need warm clothes much more than I do. The children also thank Grandma for the ham and sausages. Grandma is very popular with them thanks to her sausage parties (you can cook ham here too, but the sausages aren't as good). Heartfelt thanks also for the long, thick letter. I had just received a letter from Päivi the day before, so I had already heard a little about her adventures. That girl is lucky to be able to go skiing in Rukatunturi. She said she would buy skis as soon as she could. Winter vacations are very popular here too. The production manager at Oberbruch, the former Dr. Meyer from Obernburg, whom I have mentioned before, was also skiing with his family, but injured his leg on the very first day. However, he didn't bother about the injury, but only went to see a doctor here and was immediately put to bed, possibly even needing surgery. Breaking your leg is a real threat here, as the skis are fastened so tightly to your feet that your ankles cannot move at all. Of course, your legs will break if you fall badly. Our neighbours are also skiing, but they have been doing so every year for many years in a row, and as they don't have children, they have more opportunity to do so. We have realized that we will not have any chance of getting a proper vacation for many years. The summer vacation at schools is only six weeks long. Jürgen has to cover for a couple of colleagues who will all have school-age children starting next summer, and six weeks is only enough for a little over two weeks per person, unless they take other vacation time to help out. This summer, we managed to negotiate a three-week continuous vacation. Jürgen would otherwise have had four weeks available. Just recently, parents were asked whether they would support extending the summer vacation by a week, but unfortunately, the majority of parents here were not in favour of the change. My only hope is that the minister will be more reasonable than the parents and extend the vacation regardless. This week, the children will receive their midterm report cards. It will be fun to see how Mirja is doing. I don't need to work with her; she takes care of her homework herself. The dolls have been left out again; these days, they only play with the dogs. The big white toy dog that Päivi made is already quite bald, but it's still a beloved pet, and Mirja even takes it to bed with her at night. The other day, Silja and Mirja were throwing it back and forth to each other. Jürgen asked what they were doing, throwing the dog around like that. "We're not throwing it, we're teaching it to fly," was the answer. The arrival of the Suomen Kuvalehti magazine this year is still our best Christmas present, and we give our father a big hug for subscribing to it. Although the book is also a good present, which I have only just been able to get my hands on now that the presentation is over. Perhaps I should tell you about that too. The national costume drew "oohs" and "aahs" right from the start, then it was touched, turned over, looked at, and questions were asked. Onerva was wonderful and sent 50 of her own slides to borrow, in addition to the ones Tuulikki and Arja had acquired. It was great to show the pictures and tell all kinds of stories, there was even a view from our attic window. All in all, my presentation lasted three hours, as I read a passage from Kaleva and my presentation was 27 pages long. In fact, afterwards everyone was very tired and went home quite early, partly because one lady had started working again and had to go to work early the next day, and when one person left, everyone else left too. This week, we (me and the children) have been invited to an "afterparty," i.e., an in-depth discussion, and we have been asked to borrow the Kalevala, so even something as small as this always leaves a seed to grow. Ramstedt's book is extremely interesting; I have now read almost all of it. I wish I had time to read a little more. Silja is such a bookworm; she reads thick books from the school library and reads them aloud to others for hours on end. I have to say that she does it better than Liesel, a third grader, whose reading I also happen to hear from time to time. Martin never reads when he's with us; he has someone read to him. Mirja starts taking care of reading for Anja. Anja got a little instrument with colourful keys for Christmas, and now she can play "Enkeli taivaasta lausui näin" and a couple of other children's songs correctly and in their entirety. She is probably more musical than Mirja. She sometimes composes little tunes herself and sings her own lyrics to them, and they go well together. Last Saturday, we were invited to the home of one of Jürgen's co-workers, who has an English wife. I had seen the couple at the tennis court in the summer, and I had been to coffee with the wife a couple of times. They had also invited a Danish couple who are here on NATO business. I asked the lady for their Christmas ham recipe. She said that, as far as she knew, there was no secret other than cutting the rind into thin slices and adding a little pepper and bay leaves for seasoning. She doesn't bake it in water, but just in the oven until the surface is crispy. Apparently, it tastes best if the layer of fat is not too thick. The lady seemed to be very Danish, at least she was rather plump, smoked small cigars, and talked about food all the time. The conversation was mostly in English, which we understand well, but after many years of rustiness, speaking is still a bit awkward. They probably knew German better than we knew English, but they preferred to use English. - So maybe I'll get some of those Christmas presents after all. The pyjamas were really necessary. Silja had been complaining to me all fall that her pyjamas were too small, and she was right. I just didn't have time to sew new ones. Now that I've got three at once, she won't have to wear the ones that are too small anymore. The sleeves on the ones Mom made reach almost to her wrists, and the bottoms are maybe a little above her ankles. I think Anja's pyjamas are very stylish with their collars. Silja's apron is homemade. She spent quite a long time weaving your apron, but she wove mine very quickly in three days before Christmas, and it's even better. She sewed a small cloth for Mutt, but Mirja's cloth is still not ready. I suggested that she sew it for my birthday, so we'll see if anything comes of it. Mom has really taken up sewing. Now in the morning you probably have time to sit still for a couple of hours at a time, when someone doesn't always come to disturb you with demands for food, coffee and other things. As soon as I sit down at the machine, the doorbell rings: Mom, I have to go to the bathroom, Mom, is it coffee time? Mom, I'm not playing with those others anymore, Mom, I'm coming in already.... In the evening, when I sit down at the machine or another one, Jürgen comes in and says it's time to go to bed, No wonder the pyjamas turn out beautiful when you make them by the dozen like that. My first job here is to sew carnival costumes again. Silja wants to be a princess after all, that's always been their dream. Jürgen said that it was his duty to go to the "Altweiberkarneval" in Oberbruch (the Carnival of the old wives, named after the fact that all the women dress up as horrible wives, tie disgusting masks to their hair and, as strangers, pick up men to dance), I don't know if I'll go there myself. The locals talk about it as if it's the best event of the year, but I don't know if I might lack the mentality that makes it fun. On the other hand, I'd of course be curious to see what it's really like there, and of course you don't have to be there if you don't want to. - Jürgen sent Tuulikki's package costs with the money. We've roughly estimated them, I hope he didn't lose much. So dad is still popular, because he was elected chairman of the council again. Since it's so much work, it's really just a job for someone who's free from other work. And besides, who knows the Perniö business better than dad. Now I have to stop. We have been doing well so far, the flu is really spreading and Mutti and the priest have been lying down with fevers for a couple of weeks now. I don't think I've ever had it before, so I don't think I'll get it now either. The disease can't hurt. I wish you both the best of luck.
Warmest regards, Liisa
HELLO GRANDMA GRANDFATHER ANJA

Heinsberg, March 17, 1969
Dear parents
You probably received the news of Pappi's death, his passing came as a surprise to all of us, because he was still in just as good health as when he was in Perniö. Only the evening before, Mutti called us and said that Pappi was in the hospital. He had also had the Hong Kong flu, not very severe at first, but then he had started to get delirious, because apparently he also had pneumonia, and so he had died peacefully in the hospital that same night. Even Mutti had not had time to be alerted and so we were shocked by the news of his death the next morning. We were in Hamburg with Jürgen, I was there all week, Jürgen had to come occasionally to do his work and came again last Thursday for the funeral. He was buried very quietly, Mutti wanted it that way (Jürgen did think that Pappi deserved a proper funeral). On February 26th he had just turned 79 and he still had so many plans, all he wanted to do. Leila was alone with the children, Anja was with me and the neighbour's wife helped him mostly with moral support. He was doing well here, Reinhard was clean, happy and cheerful when I returned and the place was in order otherwise. But he seemed relatively calm. Jürgen advised him on practical arrangements and Aggie comes to visit a lot or spends the night at her mother's. Of course, he will move out of that apartment by the autumn, it is far too big for him. However, he will stay in Hamburg and try to get a small apartment for himself near Aggie. In April he promised to come to visit us and that's when we also met Reinhard. It's a shame that Pekka and Arja can't come, what if dad comes alone by flying? We'll pick you up from Cologne at the airport. By the way, Jürgen said that I could fly to Finland with Reinhard in the autumn if no one else comes. Just thanks for your mother's letter and the national costume catalogue. I've been thinking about ordering Härmä's costume and I thought I'd sew it myself, because there's no trick to the skirt, not so much the apron and you can't order patterns for the blouse. Should I write that they'll send it to you on demand and I'll get it from there and the customs won't start asking unnecessary questions when it's not from the shop's papers. Yes, they are such beautiful costumes that it's hard to decide which one to get. Did Päivi have Antrea's costume when school ended? It's also very beautiful. Perniö's costume is certainly the most expensive of all and I have close personal feelings about it, but I wouldn't dare to wear it. I'm just wondering whether I should order a french hood or ribbons for that Härmä costume (Jürgen loved the colours), the price difference is quite a bit and Jürgen likes ribbons, it's hard, I guess they're really just decorations more fitting for a young girl. For fun, I calculated that for the Tuuteri's costume I would earn the most in wages, there's so much embroidery in it that it would obviously be expensive to make by hand. -The girls are terribly jealous of me, I just had to tell them that they already have national costumes, because the Dirndl costumes they got for their birthdays are, in a way, national costumes too. Of course you can keep Reinhard's pictures. I'll attach a later picture, I think he's become more and more like Virtanen, Laitila's mother, grandfather and Liisa and now that he has such chubby cheeks his smile is reminiscent of Lasse's smile, even with a dimple in his cheek. He's become such a happy boy, when the bottle is empty he starts laughing so hard and then he looks closely when you talk to him and immediately starts kicking hard and trying hard to say something himself, he makes the kind of babbling sound he makes come to birth. Otherwise he's calm and content, he's eating better, weighs 5560 grams at 2 months and is quite tall. Of course, he got into the rompers when they started to fit a little, now the first ones are almost too small and those cute ruffle collared shirts that grandma sent Anja are almost too small, it's shocking how much weight gain in a little baby seems to be already. I'm going to the gym again to get those extra pounds off for myself. It's no wonder now that I'm in good shape and I stay in shape, because Leila is a great help, in the afternoons I simply go for an hour's nap. Reinhard's last feed is already at eight in the evening and in the morning he almost always sleeps, when I take him for his morning feed a little before six in order to have time to get him ready before Jürgen gets up. - Otherwise, our trip to Hamburg went well, a new autobahn has recently been built through Münster and Bremen, which doesn't have so much traffic. It was only on the way back that it was a bit of a struggle, because on Thursday afternoon it started to snow and the wind was strong. We set off around four o'clock, in the dark and slippery conditions it is of course more dangerous than just slippery. The weather was terrible, Volkswagen is naturally a bit of a skater, Jürgen drove very carefully, only an average of 40 km per hour, there were parts being changed between the cars, otherwise small cars overtake trucks, now the trucks with their big tires were driving relatively fast while the small cars were creeping. We were already wondering if we should stop the whole trip, but the weather report said that the situation was better in the south and so we kept creeping along until somewhere around Osnabrück the situation really cleared up. Jürgen had gotten up at four in the morning and had driven from Heinsberg to Hamburg in five hours. At four in the afternoon he started driving back again, but we didn't arrive until half past one in the morning, so we took three and a half hours longer to make the same journey and that was all in the first hundred kilometres. Waiting wouldn't have improved the situation at all, because the next day the roads in Northern Germany were still covered in snow. It was below freezing in Hamburg all the time and there was a lot of snow on the ground. We haven't had any more snow, spring is coming. Yesterday I harvested my first crop from the garden! chive stalks for seasoning. Crocuses, snowdrops and other early flowers are blooming, tulips, daffodils and rhubarb are pushing their leaves up from the ground, and blackbirds are giving their concerts in the mornings. To answer my mother's questions, yes, we still had llama shirts. The girls have worn them all winter, I haven't needed them and now that I read Leena's letter I decided it was best to send them to her, because that's where they really need those angry and warm ones. Leena's birthday was completely missed by me because of Pappi's death, I had actually intended to write, because I received a letter from her very recently, as well as from Arja, Tuulikki and Päivi, so I owe everyone a letter again. I also have another poinsettia. Last spring I cut the one I received in the spring. The old stump (very short) will be moved to new soil and so it may bloom again next Christmas. For me, only the one that I had cut from the top and rooted in soil bloomed. I'm now taking new branches a little earlier, because last year I waited too long, when it was always so beautifully red, I didn't bother to cut it back in time. It doesn't need any special care, it seems to require a relatively lot of water, they say it needs at least 14-15 hours of darkness a day to develop red leaves. It's good that you managed to get over the Hong Kong flu, none of us have had it, Aggie's family had it all and I guess Pappi got infected from there. I hope you continue to be well, heartfelt thanks in advance for the national costume (I'll be sure to hug you in real-life for this) and kisses to grandma and grandpa from all the children.

Best regards, Liisa

Heinsberg, 13.4.69
Dear mon and dad!
Heartfelt thanks for your father's letter and the Easter package. I had a bit of a reconnaissance mission to get it through customs before Easter. Customs was closed on Good Friday and Saturday, and I received the parcel card on Saturday. Fortunately, people were nice and helpful, and the customs officer came a few kilometres away to open the door, so I got it as I expected on Saturday afternoon, and the mämmi and sausages were in excellent condition. Many thanks again for sending it, Easter wouldn't be a proper Easter for us without mämmi, Mutti also liked it so much that she always had a second one. Leila hasn't eaten at home, but she's gotten used to us eating everything, and so she ate the mämmi without a hitch. We had a wonderful Easter weather, it was warm +25° outside, the sun was shining brightly from a cloudless sky, the girls got short-sleeved skirts and knee-high socks and were swooning with happiness. Nature burst into splendour in an instant, Easter lilies were blooming in the garden and anemones in the forest. We drank coffee on the lawn and Reinhard kicked in the sun without a cover, everyone got some colour on their faces. The sun is shining today too, but there is snow on the ground!!! This morning it snowed for a while. Snow fell from the sky in full force with the thunderstorm, but of course it melts immediately. Today is the so-called White Sunday, Catholic children get their confirmation and it is a very big celebration, in which entire families participate with eating, drinking, gifts, flowers and finally dancing! Jürgen also has to congratulate his colleagues' children for his job, and we sent six flower bushes in that capacity. Last week was then marked by gardening. I managed to do the sowing in nice weather, and when I had almost everything ready, it started to rain, so I guess they will start growing now, as long as there is no more snow. I sowed more or less the same varieties as in previous years. Actually, we would now have much more garden space than the Lehnhard's, it is unlikely that there will be any subsequent renters in the apartment downstairs so quickly. The children are already sowing their own seeds there and I guess I will plant my seedlings there too when my own space runs out. Jürgen worked in the garden even on Easter days, he doesn't want to have time at other times. He had been told that this workplace was not final for him either, we probably won't be in Heinsberg in a year and a half, as long as we survive, we will see it. Possibly the next place will be Wuppertal. Yesterday was Reinhard's birthday. The weather was changeable like in April, sometimes it rained with hail, sometimes it rained and sometimes it was sunny. At 2:45 p.m., just when the baptism was supposed to take place, a very strong downpour came so that the heavens watered the boy even before the pastor. Reinhard behaved very modestly during the service itself. Only the organ playing seemed threatening to him, but my safe proximity comforted him so that he did not cry. Then she looked at the pastor with interest and occasionally responded with a positive murmur. Silja also tried to pull her silk ribbon into her mouth in the same way. At the same time, another child was baptized, who dropped her pacifier in the baptismal font. I hear Jürgen has done the same thing, a pacifier was bought for him specifically and only for the baptism ceremony, so that he wouldn't cry. Reinhard is a very kind child, Mutti is very happy to be able to play with him, gratefully Reinhard then lets himself be sat on the potty and laughs and babbling happily when he has company. The girls have had three weeks of Easter vacation, school starts again tomorrow. Mutti is planning to go back to Hamburg on Wednesday. She has been a great help to me. Leila took a vacation for the Easter holidays and travelled to Amsterdam with a few acquaintances. Mutti doesn't really get along with Leila, she thinks she is slow and doesn't do anything on her own initiative. I wouldn't expect more from her, because she obviously hasn't had to do much at home. She does take a little too much care of her boyfriends, she's already rejected one fiancé and the other is already leaving, but she knew both of them before she came to us. Jürgen thanks you for your sympathetic letter, father, and for not being completely negative about the invitation. So we're holding out hope that you'll come for a few days in the summer after all. You're unlikely to encounter any language difficulties on the way, because the flight attendants will take care of you in Finnish. I'd love to show my son to my mother, but maybe our visit would be too stressful for her? It's almost three years since we last met, it's really time to meet again and maybe we'll continue this conversation by letter, so we can figure out who's coming to see whom. Jürgen will take care of the travel expenses in all cases. - Here are a few pictures of Reinhard at almost three months old. By the way, I guess I forgot to say what I thought of that Christmas book of mine. It was really nice to read, especially that about Norway. I would actually rather read new Finnish authors, I don't know a single work by Veijo Meri either, and they are mentioned so often in Suomen Kuvalehti. So Finnish books next. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to read any literature at the moment, in the hospital I read a couple of books that Mutti lent me, and after that only magazines. Here is also Mirja's view of Reinhard's baptism, the woman in black is Mrs. Urlass, who held him in her arms. And now just warm greetings from all of us and good health,
Liisa, Jürgen, Mutti, Silja, Mirja, Anja and Reinhard

Heinsberg 4.5.1969
Dear mon and dad
Thank you very much for the package! It arrived last Monday, the customs officer was very curious and opened the package. Fortunately, it was so nicely packaged that at first glance one could see only fabric, fabric and more fabric, and so it didn't need any more attention. How on earth did mom guess that I was going to give all three pillows as birthday presents! It is truly beautiful fabric, a real flower meadow as a headrest. So on behalf of the children, a happy and satisfied thank you to grandma for the gift that just happened to be right there. I don't know how else to thank her, my fingers immediately got sore, I had to start sewing immediately. Unfortunately, May Day and birthday chores interrupted it, so the vests still need to be sewn. I think the dress is somehow a little more valuable when sewn by myself, although it may not be the same as if it were mass-produced. There is plenty of sewing to do, because I got a walking suit fabric from Jürgen, i.e. Glanzstoff, which I also sew with my own hands. For Silja, I made a walking suit from Tante Edith's old one! It was almost a puzzle, because the original cut was somewhat unique. And of course, there will still be sewing summer dresses, but I haven't been in a particular hurry, because summer seems to be coming later than usual this year. The fruit trees are in full bloom this week, and the weather has finally started to warm up. Every morning the girls first visit the thermometer to see if they can get knee socks and short sleeves. May Day was particularly chilly and rainy, but the sima and tippaleipä, which I dared to make for the first time, still did their job for the little guests. Monika, Elke, Sylvia, Marie-Luise and Liesel made the house shake and the walls tremble. The last ones almost had to be driven home after Jürgen had performed the "Kasperle" puppet theatre as the last act. We were celebrating May Day only on Saturday in Wassenberg in an Anglo-German way and we had to sit at the same table as at carnival, i.e. we had to manage to talk in English again. I feel like it gets better every time. The commercial director of the Hückelhoven coal mine and the doctor from Glanzstoff and his wife were also sitting at the same table and they were clearly having trouble with their English. But still I thought it was fun. Then on Sunday it rained again and Anja was sick, today I went with her to the throat doctor, because she has been suffering from angina for weeks and our family doctor couldn't find any decent medicine. They ordered her to go to the hospital right away and have her tonsils removed. Poor Anja is currently undergoing surgery there. Oh, the poor thing, I hope it goes well. I'm also going to coffee parties today and tomorrow, luckily Leila is here, otherwise I wouldn't be able to make it at all. - The apple trees are blooming much less than last year, the cherry trees are in full bloom, but there's still no harvest to be expected from them. Silja's radishes will be edible next week, and the spinach is growing briskly, especially now that there have been warm rains. This morning it thundered and rained heavily, yesterday it was such a scorching hot weather. Tulips are currently blooming and pets, the time for daffodils is already over and the sirens are just budding. So I choose pets for my Mother's Day bouquet and hand them out in my thoughts to my mother-in-law, happy and content that I have a lovely mother who still remembers me with letters. - This morning (because it's already the next morning) Mirja woke me up with a groan. Earache, so there's another patient to be treated, one in the hospital, the other at home. I have to go see Anja now, last night I only visited in a hurry, she was still half-asleep, a thick bandage around her neck and didn't say anything. There is an older woman in the same room who said that she hadn't cried or vomited, but the worst is the first couple of days after the operation. Fortunately, Anja is good at being left alone even in strange surroundings, she didn't say anything but calmly "hei, hei" yesterday and just stayed in her bed to rest. - Reinhard is growing fast and is a real sweetheart, it's fun to listen to his liveliness, and feeding him is not difficult at all, he has learned to eat porridge brilliantly. Soon I think we will have to start giving him a second portion of porridge a day. Here are a few pictures, the one in the swing was taken at Easter, the other at the christening together with his godparents. Thanks also to Päivi for the beautiful birthday presents, the girls are writing themselves, when I start them doing that again. Otherwise, Anja can already read and write quite well, but only writes from dictation. She learned so quickly and without difficulty that I was amazed. In kindergarten she has learned a whole bunch, songs and poems, unfortunately it will be a long time before she can go back to kindergarten. She has to be in the hospital for a week, so they said, if everything goes normally. And now I'm going to put an end to the letter writing and run about my business. Golden, heartfelt greetings from all of us. Good health and a good summer (spring)
writing-greetings, Liisa

Heinsberg, June 21, 1969

We wish you a wonderful Midsummer
as we enjoy our own, even though the brightness of the summer night fades much earlier, the birdsong falls silent, and no one celebrates by killing mosquitoes around the bonfire. Three years ago, we too drove around Särkisalo counting the fireworks, and it makes me feel quite wistful to think about it. My travel plans for this summer seem to have been dashed when Leila suddenly announced the day before yesterday that she has to go home next Monday. She received a couple of telegrams, and telegrams rarely bring good news. She wouldn't even tell me what the urgent and sudden reason was that she couldn't stay until the end of the month, only saying that it was because of her parents. We had quietly planned what we would do when he left, and we had decided on a dishwasher and a cleaning lady, even though I am opposed to the latter on principle, because our finances are often tight. However, there is a lady who is well-liked by many women living nearby, and I asked her if she would have time for us too, at least for the time being, and she may actually come. We went to look at dishwashers today. Leila has been very nice lately and quite independent, having gotten used to the weekly routine and the ways of the house. I now look with horror at the harvest hanging and ripening in the garden. All of the Lehnhards' and our currant bushes and other plants will now require considerably more work, and we will have to rely even more on our children's assistance. This will be very good for Silja, because she thinks she is here in this world just for her own amusement and complains about every little task that is placed on her shoulders. For Leila, this time was probably a good home economics course, because in addition to shopping, she got to do everything, except for cooking, but even that a little. Of course, our family life suffered a little from the presence of a guest, although Leila didn't bother anyone; she was terribly quiet, not shy, but silent. However, living so closely together always brings its own problems. We knew this in advance and were prepared for it, which is why I no longer want anyone to replace her, even though my own responsibilities now take up all my time and leave no room for hobbies and entertainment (i.e., tennis). Fortunately, I managed to sew so much that the most urgent tasks are now behind me. I finished the national costume three weeks ago, when I got better sewing instructions for the vest from Helmi Vuorelma. With the few instructions I got at first, it certainly wouldn't have turned out authentic.

It's a shame that our camera only has black-and-white film at the moment, otherwise you would have already seen how great it turned out. I am extremely pleased with the sewing results, and my family is looking at it as if it were a miracle. It will definitely get plenty of use, because after I mentioned it a few times, everyone is terribly curious to see it. First, Jürgen wants to invite his colleague Mr. á Brassard, who is a passionate fisherman. For this purpose, he considers it necessary to serve not only his wife in national costume but also Finnish food. I wrote to Päivi in Rovaniemi, from whom I already received a card, asking if he could get some salmon for his fishing rod, but I have not yet received a reply. Mr. á Brassard (whose ancestors come from France) is a Sunday fisherman, whom I am enticing to Finland for better fishing than is available here, and the salmon should give him a little taste of what would be on offer if... Mrs. á Brassard does not like fish and does not fish, but I suppose she would eat salmon. Actually, in the previous sentence, I should have mentioned that Mr. á Brassard also films, and since he is in the same bowling club as Jürgen, he filmed us at the carnival. Last week we were invited to see the results, and it turned out well. Jürgen played almost the leading role, as he happened to be Mrs. á Brassard's table companion, but I also caught a glimpse of myself on the screen. Speaking of entertainment, we danced until two o'clock, and as a result, my knees are quite sore. Last week, we had the honor of being invited to the home of the factory manager, Dr. Ensslin. Actually, the invitation had come the week before, and I had bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers, but when I came home with it, Leila said that the event had just been canceled due to surprise guests. At first I sweated over what to do with the bouquet, then I gathered my courage and asked the florist to take it back for a week, which they fortunately did. The factory manager has a magnificent villa in Wassenberg, which is the most beautiful place in this area, but the coal mine tunnels extend all the way there, and sometimes the house shakes, causing cracks in the walls. They have had wonderful weather for a couple of weeks, really beautiful and warm. Last week we went swimming every day. Silja can now swim really well, she can stay afloat for about ten meters. Mirja swims with the dog, but because she is moderately afraid of water, her swimming skills are not developing as quickly. We still go swimming in the sandpit lake, which was built this spring and now has a slightly shallow shore for children, but even this spring two children have drowned there, which is why we don't dare leave them unattended at all.

Today, the whole family went swimming, while Leila was still cooking and looking after Reinhard: he's leaving tomorrow morning. In addition to swimming, the sun has also helped the strawberries ripen, so we have been eating them every day for dessert for a week now, and tomorrow there will be enough to preserve. We now have a good bit more garden to take care of, as the Lehnhards have no one to take over for them. The blackcurrants are also starting to ripen. The mice have multiplied terribly in the garden, there are holes everywhere, so that the plants grow on empty ground and wither unless you go and press the soil down again. We also chase rabbits from time to time. Today, Jürgen claimed to have chased one through the fence into the forest after a fierce chase. Hopefully, it went as far as pepper grows. Let's also talk about the children. Silja has already been mentioned. A week ago, her eye swelled up almost completely shut; I guess some little creature had bitten her. Of course, the doctor was not available on Saturday evening, so we resorted to an ice pack, and fortunately, it was better by the next day. Her hay fever has bothered her a couple of times, but now the hay is down, thankfully, and the hay air is good. School lasts until July 11. Her math has been a little weaker lately, but they are all still doing mental arithmetic, which we find surprising, as they are not yet doing any calculations. Addition, subtraction, and multiplication up to a thousand, division up to a hundred, and we have very few lessons and not much homework. On the other hand, their local history lessons involve astonishingly difficult tasks. Recently, the children were asked to explain Glanzstoff and, in passing, the entire history of synthetic fiber production. This was followed by coal mining and all its intricacies. Mirja has been doing the same thing in construction and farmhouses, and they are starting to learn vocabulary that I have never even heard of. Next year, English lessons will begin, but only for the best students, not for everyone. Silja's piano lessons continue as usual; she plays little pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, and most recently she was given compositions by Bela Bartok to play. Jürgen has given up the piano altogether; he no longer has the energy in the evenings, and his skills are deteriorating, so it's not really fun for him anymore. There's nothing special to report about Mirja this time.

Her front teeth are crooked and about to fall out, she is cheerful and sweet as ever, but in one respect she is starting to become dangerously like me, bossy towards others. Anja's troubles are happily over, and kindergarten is starting to be a nice place again, where she likes to go. She even enjoys reading on her own sometimes. And Reinhard is, of course, everyone's favorite. At five months old, he weighed 8,165 grams, which is more than double his birth weight. He loves gymnastics and is certainly not lazy, even though he cannot yet roll over from his back to his stomach or vice versa. He enjoys being pulled up to a sitting position the most, and he's quite good at it. His baby basket is starting to get too small for him, but now that Leila is leaving, he can sleep in Anja's bed, where there's plenty of room. I have taken pictures of him, but the camera has such a long film inside that the first pictures were taken a month ago. Reinhard occasionally holds such cheerful concerts that we all have fun. Then he wiggles his toes in the air and tries to reach them. I teach him words, and he looks like he understands. The first word he learned was "bottle," but then he forgot it when I didn't repeat it for a while. After gymnastics comes "bath time," and then he starts waving his legs wildly, which shows that he already knows what's coming next. For Jürgen, his son is the most important member of the family after me, at least judging by the fact that his steps often lead to the baby's crib. As for Jürgen himself, he has now received final confirmation of his first position as a chemist. This means not only the reassuring knowledge that he has been deemed suitable, but also free housing (a 12% salary increase) and a gardener once a week. There have been quite a few major changes at Glanzstoff recently, as it has become more closely linked to its Dutch parent company AKU, half of the board members are Dutch, and the organization has been restructured, but the staff is largely unchanged.

Jürgen, however, thinks that he doesn't need to worry about the possibility of us having to move somewhere else in a year's time. That's a comforting thought, as we would be happy to stay where we are for a while. Now Reinhard is starting to cry; it's time for his evening meal, so I'll stop here, having told you everything about us. I look forward to receiving your letter with news about you and what's going on in Perniö. I will add a translation of Mirja's letter here.

Dear Grandma! Many thanks for the beautiful bedding, I have been sleeping on it for almost four weeks now. We go swimming every day and Silja is already improving and I have learned to swim underwater. When I pull Reinhard up to sit, he holds on to the edges of the bed and usually laughs. Leila is leaving now, and we have to help a lot. Soon we will be able to move upstairs, where Leila is sleeping now. We now eat strawberries for dessert almost every day, and we have already had strawberry cake twice. Today we had three containers, two two-liter ones and one one-liter one.
Best regards, Mirja.

Hello hello! Heinsberg, 10.8.69

The hot summer continues, it hasn't been this beautiful and warm in years. It's wonderful to get up in the morning, the sun always shines. We were happy that Jürgen's vacation happened at a beautiful time, but now the same fair weather continues. Many days it is over 30 degrees in the shade, the children go swimming and Reinhard lazes outside without clothes from morning to evening. Sometimes I bring him inside when it's too hot outside. I have plenty of work and so this writing is left very little, even though in thought I often am with you. I wonder how mother's asthma responds to this weather? Jürgen suffers mainly from heat and dryness. Hopefully, you are not the same. There would be a lot to write about, especially about the trip, which was quite an experience for me. I always want to go somewhere, I wanted to get to Paris. Jürgen had saved a lot of summer vacation from last year, so he spent 5 weeks straight, two are still left, but I guess they have to be left for next year. The first week he was at his mother's in Hamburg. The children were still in school, so we were here, besides, his mother had her brother Gotthard with his wife from America visiting. Jürgen arranged his father's leftover papers and then brought his mother to Heinsberg when he came, so we could go on a trip without children.

Early in the morning, the weather looked rainy, we started driving through Holland to Belgium. Ghent was our first destination and we drove there directly through Antwerp without stopping anywhere along the way. It rained a little on the way but when we arrived the weather was good, and we went from one sightseeing to another, we hooked here and there, because the map was vague, and Ghent quite complicated. But it doesn't matter, because we had time and Ghent as well as Bruges, which was our destination the next day, are cities where the bourgeoisie early in the Middle Ages rose to power and wealth, and used their resources to build beautiful houses. Ghent is still today the center of the textile industry, and the city is not only a historical sight but a lively place. The greatest treasure of Ghent is the altarpiece painted by the Van Eyck brothers in the chapel of Saint Bavo's church. I thought it was the most beautiful and artistically accomplished work of the whole trip, Mona Lisa in the Louvre pales in comparison, in my opinion quite an ordinary painting. The Ghent altar is multifold, actually it is two paintings on top of each other, because when the altar cabinet doors are closed there is another painting on the door. Photographing it is useless, because the impression can never be given as it has seen itself. It was simply magnificent and I would be happy to travel there again. Bruges is near Ghent, but here weaves through all sorts of small places and tourists to Bruges are plentiful. It was teeming with tourists and the good income of the local Bruges is now mainly skinning tourists, every single sight lightened the wallet, excluding the unique street view itself. It is a surprisingly well-preserved and homogeneous medieval city, which nowadays really only sells itself and bobbin laces to tourists. We walked roughly all day, went to museums, churches, and all other tourist attractions, ate well in street cafes in the Belgian way. Belgians eat four courses for their meal: soup, appetizer, main course, and desserts. We spent almost 100 DM a day for the two of us, especially Paris was an expensive place, now they have devalued, a little too late for us. From Bruges we drove to France and along the canal coast all the way to Boulogne, where we stayed overnight. Jürgen went swimming, but otherwise there was nothing special there.

I was looking forward to the first experience of the French kitchen excitedly. The experience was there, but quite different from what I had expected. Firstly, there seemed to be no restaurant anywhere. There were plenty of little pubs, but they only served the thirsty. Then we found a sea restaurant, the prices were good, but the food! Firstly, we got a plate of small crabs with their shells and all in front of us. I tried with a knife and fork. Jürgen grabbed with his fingers, both with the same result, the creatures could not get out of their shells and that course we had to send back to the kitchen. Then followed a raw steak, tough as a 30-year-old cow. There was no more extraordinary dessert: an ice cream package straight from the fridge, just open the paper and eat. No culinary pleasure was created. In the evening our stomachs were penalized again, after a long search, we found a better place. We ordered pizza in the Italian way and cautiously dropped the sauce on its surface, which looked good, but the mouth burned from the terrible power of the hot sauce. So all the following French kitchen treats weren't much bigger, the butter tastes awful, the pastries were the best. It seemed to us that the raw steak and French fries are the most substantial food. In Paris, it was so hot that we lived mostly on drinks, Coca-Cola and beer, straight tap water and orange juice. After a couple of hundred meters,we were thirsty again. French coffee cups are huge, an average tasting drink, but better than in Belgium.

The next day we drove to Amiens to see the famous Gothic cathedral and the Picardie museum. There was one and the other thing to see in the city as well, the weather improved after being cloudy in Boulogne. In the evening a real surprise met: a tourist home, where we found a place to sleep was next to a circus, the whole street was filled with loud music, noise, loudspeakers and cars. The noise continued until half past midnight and I couldn't sleep anyway, because someone was playing his radio so loud in the neighbor that my nerves were about to give up. The next morning was Sunday. We were going to continue the journey early in the morning, but it was close to just being an intention as it turned out that the hotel staff did not exist at all, or if they did, they were sleeping so deep that they didn't wake up. Through the neighbors we somehow got our bill paid and headed towards Paris ... At this point I have to wonder and admire afterwards how well Jürgen did with his school French, it's been quite a long time from the times when he learned it. And the driving went without the slightest scratch on the car. Not even dangerous situations happened, and we were after all in Paris! Once we did sweat when we drove to one suburb after two holidays and there was a real traffic chaos on the streets.

No one cared about the traffic lights anymore, and only after driving carefully did we get where we were going. Actually, we came to Paris at the wrong time. We hadn't realized that July 14 is not only my father's birthday, but also France's national holiday, when museums, institutions, and shops are closed. Besides, we hadn't even looked at our travel guide closely enough to realize that all museums are closed on Tuesdays, because otherwise they are open every day. So we almost didn't get to see any of the sights, and we shortened the trip at the other end and decided to stay in Paris until Wednesday. We sacrificed Luxembourg, which I had already seen. To visit the Louvre, which Jürgen was already familiar with, so as not to jeopardize our return trip, we traveled around Paris almost exclusively by metro, which has stops almost everywhere. The system is very simple and takes you everywhere. On Sunday afternoon, we just wandered around. First we visited Notre Dame Cathedral and then ended up at the Louvre, which was packed with people, as admission is free on Sundays. It was hot and beautiful. The Parisian street scene is very colorful, and at almost every step you meet people of different nationalities, especially an unusually large number of Africans. Because it was a national holiday, all the public buildings were decorated with flags, and there were a lot of them, 3-5 flags in front of every window. It was an unforgettable sight, and at the tomb of the unknown soldier under the triumphal arch, there was a truly gigantic tricolor. We saw part of the parade, which was less impressive but still interesting. To Jürgen's amazement, the soldiers sang Nazi songs as they marched, but perhaps the Nazis had learned them from the French first. We walked from one end of the Champs Elysees to the other, then marched to the Eiffel Tower, which fortunately was open. We admired Paris from the air and then spent the rest of the day walking around the city, first visiting Napoleon's tomb. (Finnish granite, as the presenter also mentioned) very impressive. A huge sarcophagus in a round 'church'. Around Napoleon's tomb are the tombs of his generals, his brother, and other notable soldiers.

Next door is the military museum, which was also open. Jürgen eagerly examined all the uniforms in detail, while I sat there bored, staring at the three-hour march behind me and another three hours ahead of me. At that point, I couldn't be bothered with war stuff. On Tuesday, we drove to the royal palace in Versailles, about 11 km from Paris, surrounded by a large park and as magnificent as one could imagine. After revolutions and wars, it has been restored with Rockefeller money. Of course, not all of the rooms are open to the public, but we saw a number of halls and came away convinced that the French kings of the time lacked nothing in splendor. Only part of the park was in the famous French style, with pyramid-shaped hedges and geometric flower beds; most of it was a 'natural park'. It was criss-crossed by wide paths, fountain wells, and statues. It is typical that all old parks in Paris are fenced in. Of course, the common people were not allowed to enter them before, and they have not been removed since. I also realized that I belonged to the common people when I returned in the evening. The hotel was primitive, untidy, and uncomfortable, but at least it wasn't that expensive. The toilet consisted of two footrests slightly raised above the floor with a hole between them. I only went there once. Wednesday, the last day, was as sunny and hot as the previous days. Fortunately, I noticed this at the Louvre, but in some of the other galleries it was as hot as a sauna. There was certainly no shortage of art to experience. We wandered quite faithfully from painting to painting. Others ran after the guide and saw about 1/50th of the collection. People stood around the Mona Lisa and marveled at it.

If they had dared to glance to the side, they would have seen five or six other paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, including the famous Madonna of the Rocks, but they didn't seem to be very interested. The Mona Lisa smiled from her red velvet frame, but her smile wasn't even that convincing, and the colors of the painting were completely ruined by the bright red background. There was a lot to see there, with all the newer art movements in different buildings. The Impressionists were at the other end of the Tuileries Garden and modern art was in the Orangerie gallery, which we didn't have the energy or time to visit, so we just enjoyed the Impressionists over dinner in the afternoon. I have never seen so many famous paintings in one day in my life. As a side effect of the art, I felt very flat after seeing all the traditional nude models. In three and a half days, we saw quite a lot of Paris, but it's not a place to go with children. Jürgen sighed with relief when he found the right road the next morning, and we arrived in Reims, the city of champagne and Gothic cathedrals, where we found a nice hotel. After Paris, it was clean and comfortable, with proper toilets. Reims was once the site of the coronation of French kings, and its Gothic cathedral is considered the most elegant of its kind. We came to the same conclusion after seeing Amiens, Bonais, Abbeville, and Notre Dame in Paris and its Gothic churches. They were all impressive with their tall stained glass windows, enormous proportions, and countless sculptures. Our travel plan was designed so that we could see as many Gothic churches as possible, although there was also a Romanesque church in Reims. Personally, I prefer Romanesque churches. They are simpler, and Finland's stone churches are more of that style. Here, close to us, especially in the Netherlands, there are several Romanesque churches. Yesterday, we happened to find another small, very beautiful one with painted walls similar to those in Perniö. These Gothic churches did not have wall paintings, but tapestries called gobelins. I always marvel at the enormous effort that went into making them. Unfortunately, the colors have faded somewhat in many of them, even though the material is otherwise in excellent condition despite being hundreds of years old.

After visiting the church, we stopped by a real champagne cellar. The world's first and best champagne is called Veuve (widow) Cliquot. Reims is the center of the Champagne region and has a good dozen different cellars that produce only champagne. Veuve Cliquot (which is actually mostly underground) is located in a cave carved into the rock by the Romans. It has been greatly enlarged by the widow so that several million bottles can fit on its shelves at a time. The bottles rest in the cellar for about six years before going on sale. However, they do not always rest, as the production process involves shaking and rebottling them from time to time. Finally, we were each offered a glass of this sparkling drink to taste, and Jürgen bought a bottle as a souvenir for his mother and uncle. Uncle Gotthardt came to visit us as soon as we returned to Heinsberg. In Reims, we also bought artichokes to taste them together with our guest. Artichokes are a delicacy that I am not particularly fond of. Based on this trial tasting, eating them is mostly a matter of licking, which does not make you any fuller. The taste is not unfamiliar, but to continue with the story of the trip, the end of it was the journey home, crossing the Ardennes, along the banks of the Meuse River, and finally through the Veen plateau. The landscape was varied and beautifully wooded. And the banks of the Meuse were very beautiful. After four and a half hours, we were home, where everything was in perfect order, thanks to my mother-in-law's care. The next day, Uncle Gotthardt arrived for a couple of days, and I had to hurry to get the serving done. My mother-in-law stayed for another week, as she felt lonely in Hamburg with Aggie's family on vacation in the Alps. I had to start preserving food, as the grapes were overripe while Jürgen was in Hamburg before our trip. I had already been preserving every day, but this year's grape harvest was twice as large as usual, as was everything else in the Lehnhart garden. Strawberries and raspberries came before the grapes. There were lots of both, and they were sweet. The weather was so warm. After the grapes, it's now time for blackberries and apples. Lehnhart's garden has a particularly bountiful harvest of white currants. We eat apples like pigs eat potatoes.

Jürgen was confirmed as the first chemist at the beginning of July, but the gardener is only arriving now. Fortunately, the grass hasn't grown much at all due to the dry weather, so it hasn't needed mowing. It has been raining for two days now (it's been a week since I started writing this letter), but now it's okay to rain. The gardener only comes for a few hours once a week, but in the fall there isn't much else to do but repair things, and they aren't even allowed to do that. There were people downstairs this morning looking at the apartment. We'll probably have new neighbors. I tried to scare them off with our four kids, but if that didn't work, then they'll just have to put up with the noise and commotion. Reinhard screamed right under the window, as if on cue. The boy is brown and looks healthy. He was outside from morning to night on nice days. At 7 months, he weighed 8925 grams. He can now roll over onto his stomach and try to pull himself up from the bars of his playpen, but he can't quite do it yet. His hair is light. And it's boyishly short, everyone says he looks just like a boy. Mrs. Urlass brought him a gift card for his first shoes. Silja and Mirja got to move up to the attic to live, they are very happy there and claim that we have no say in the matter. It does make them more independent, as they have to clean up after themselves and make their beds. But the move didn't help them sleep longer in the morning. On the contrary, even during the holidays, they come down at six in the morning. Anja is now even more alone, playing her own imaginary games, singing and laughing, and she doesn't seem to mind. Kindergarten is a real lifesaver for her. This week, all three of them had stomach problems again. I had to change Anja's sheets twice in one night. Silja and Mirja are better at being sick. This letter has turned out to be quite long again. Best wishes to everyone and to Tuulikki.

Thank you for your letters.
Warmest regards, Liisa

Hello!

Thank you very much for your long letter. Finally, I received news from your direction again. Sometimes it is really hard to bear when no one in Finland is writing me. Now and then I take a little break from writing letters myself, even if it's my turn. The weather here is still exceptionally beautiful and warm. Geraniums and Fuchsias are blooming in the garden, while the gardener has already cut or pulled out the other flowers. The cabbages are standing tall, and the sauerkraut cabbage harvest was good and much better in quality than last year, when there was too much rain for the cabbages. I don't think it has rained here for a couple of months. The sun is shining brightly in the autumn sky, and just last week I saw (I think) swallows, even though most of them have already left. There are plenty of flies, though, and they sometimes gather in large numbers on the warm wall. And the whole staircase is speckled with black spots from them. The leaves are slowly falling, but as there has been no frost, there are still many green and yellowish leaves left on the birch trees. We have had mixed fortunes. Jürgen is on a two-week course in Düsseldorf for the second time and only comes home for the weekends. Silja was in the hospital for a couple of weeks to have her appendix removed, which had been bothering her more or less constantly. Reinhard had a fever, earache, and tonsillitis, but luckily we were able to cure it with medication. Then he had two teeth extracted at once and he was a little cranky. At the moment, everyone is fine. Except that I just noticed two cavities in Mirja's teeth that need to be fixed right away. Silja really enjoyed being in the hospital. Jürgen and I were a little worried that she was making up stories about stomachaches so she could experience the bliss of being in the hospital. She probably heard about it when Anja had her tonsils removed. Waking up after the anesthesia was painful for her, but after the first couple of days, she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the wonderful peace and quiet for reading, which she never gets at home. The doctor confirmed that her appendix was indeed inflamed and not just imaginary, as we had feared. Silja's roommate was a youngish woman who had to stay in the hospital for three weeks and brought a TV to the room. Silja is not an athletic type, so she did not suffer at all from being confined to bed, and she stayed in bed until the moment I came to pick her up. She was really angry when she had to get up and go home. Fortunately, a couple of her classmates had come to welcome her home, and so she got back to work as usual. Silja had to make sugar beet syrup for school. The recipe was written down in her notebook. She was supposed to get sugar from it, but even with Jürgen's tricks, it didn't crystallize properly. I vividly remembered our own syrup making when I helped wash and chop the sugar beets.


A week ago, Mutti moved into a new apartment very close to her old one. She wanted something small and modern, but ended up with something old and large, so she didn't have to give up all her old belongings at once. Aggie and her family are now moving into their old apartment, so a return to the past is still possible from time to time. It's almost impossible to find a new apartment in Hamburg unless you're quite wealthy, and new apartments cost relatively more. The rent is the same as for the old ones, even though they don't offer any more amenities. Mutti thinks the the high ceilings and windows are dangerous. Now she apparently has even higher ones. However, they are on the lowest floor, so there are at least fewer stairs to climb. She seems happy, though, and that's the main thing. This way she gets to be close to Aggie, and I guess they are good for each other. (Jürgen would not want to live near his mother at any price; her commands terrify him.) Last week we were at a concert in Aachen. We got free tickets, and director Ensslin himself drove us there and back in his car. It's been years since we last went to a concert, and I was so nervous that I still swallowed wrong in the middle of the concert and almost choked on a cough that I tried to suppress. My throat was still sore the next day. The concert hall in Turku is quite a bit more impressive. Aachen was so crowded that, due to a lack of other seating, the audience had to sit very exposed very close to the orchester, as if sitting on a serving tray. Our seats were right at the front, but fortunately not too close. I've had quite a bit of bad luck this past week. I crashed my car, denting the fender. And I had to pay 90 DM for the repair. This week, a rubber hose in the washing machine burst. Luckily, it was right by the bathtub, so there was no water damage. In the same load, I threw Jürgen's blue socks in with the white laundry. Yep, I got blue laundry. Luckily, there was no valuable laundry in there, and it doesn't matter if the diapers are light blue. I bleached the best clothes with color remover to make them as white as before. There was a slight flood in the basement, but luckily the coals didn't get wet, and now we won't have hot water until a new hot water boiler is delivered. Hopefully the series will end soon before anything worse happens. the be able to write more cheerful notes, Reinhard is continuing to develop normally, at least physically. He is agile, sits up and stands up, and walks around the playpen while still holding onto the edges. He has also learned to pat his cheek on command. And to wave his hand once, he fell off the changing table, and once we caught him in midair. He is now learning to crawl on all fours, but he is smartest when using the potty. He puts his business in and then gets up. Unfortunately, the contents then spill onto the floor. Unless you keep an eye on him, he obviously knows what is expected of him and, once he has done it, he decides that there is no need to sit there any longer. A clever conclusion. The baby's clothes are gradually becoming too small, but he won't be a little baby for much longer, and there are enough pants in the closet for when the last buttons fly off his shoulders straps.

His blond hair has grown so long that it's starting to curl at the ends, and he still a little bald at the back. I convinced Silja that I had planted hair seeds on Reinhard's pillow, which is why his hair is starting to grow where he's bald. Silja thought about it for a moment before realizing that I was just joking. A couple of weeks ago, history was made for the first time when Jürgen and I happened to get up on a Sunday morning to have breakfast readily cooked and served by the girls. Setting the table is actually their daily task. We had practiced making coffee and eggs from time to time. But now I was just in the kitchen grinding the coffee twice. The first time, Silja forgot to keep the lid on the electric coffee grinder, and both the lid and the coffee beans flew across the kitchen. Of course, I didn't scold her. After all, it was a historic moment. Silja and Mirja knit enthusiastically. Silja made a teddy bear in her craft class at school. She made another one on request for her roommate at the hospital. Mirja is knitting a pot holder. Their work looks really smooth and natural when I think about my own first attempts and those crocheted baby booties. It took me almost a year to make those, so I have to say that my daughters make better now. Mirja cries once in a while because her wool got so tangled and messy that we had to cut the thread and spend hours untangling the mess, but then she beams again. And she kisses me when I've helped her. Otherwise, we don't have to work so hard in the garden anymore, as the gardener comes once a week and does the hardest jobs. Of course, there's work to be done when it comes to harvesting, but that's all for home consumption. We definitely wouldn't buy as many vegetables and fruits, apples and pears, as they are ripe right now, and the children can snack on them as much as they want. Reinhard eats carrots every day, and since July, they have all been from our own garden. Yesterday, I was surprised to find a handful of ripe raspberries, which made me feel like it was summer. I'll get the latest photos on Monday, so I'll let the letter rest before I send it, but I'll end the letter with my warmest

regards
Liisa

Heinsberg 17.12.69

Merry Christmas to you two who are at home there, if you are, or are you really in Vihti spending Christmas with an enlarged family, then my greeting goes to to the whole round. I wish you a peaceful, happy and pleasant time together, and don't forget us "birds in a distant land". Let this letter and the small gifts that the Post Office has hopefully brought to your parcels remind you of that. Four parcels arrived from Finland in one batch yesterday and excited anticipation began to move inside the children’s minds. Silja and Mirja are already busy making their own presents, because Mutti is coming on Sunday and should be ready by then. My time has also been so busy with these Christmas preparations that I haven't had time to write answers to her questions or gift wishes for my mother. When it's a little difficult to express a book wish. It's a bit difficult to make book requests when you don't have much idea about the new releases. I think I would have asked for Matleena and the Children of the World, because Mrs. Koivisto praised it in her diary, but surprises are always more pleasant. We have the smell of baking everywhere and that's when the real Christmas atmosphere starts to develop. That Chrismas cleaning is really only done to appease our conscience, it doesn't have any greater significance for creating the festive mood. This time our Christmas will be a bit wistful, after all, Pappi is not present for the first time ever.

Hopefully, the children's joy will be able to drive away Mutti's sad thoughts at least partially. The artistic presentations of the children's play an important part in the program again, poems have been learned and each one also plays Christmas carols, each on their own instrument. Jürgen has a work shift on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but hardly anyone will disturb him then, unless there is a special need. This year we will deviate from the traditional ham for the first time. Jürgen wanted to eat goose and although it is much more difficult for the mother of the family, Mutti will be there to help as the chef. Christmas is a new experience for Reinhard. On Advent Sunday, he tried to join in our singing of Christmas carols and he tried to reach the piano keys with his fingers, even though he couldn't even reach the edge of the piano and it was clear that he liked the song too, he just didn't know how to sing yet. We have already had Christmas weather, frost, a little snow and darkness. We can't boast of any snow, but even a thin layer of snow creates the atmosphere of a white Christmas. May the new year bring you a contented happiness of old age. For dad, a new decade begins in the new year. It is a festive occasion that is worth thinking about in advance. For mother, I would like from the bottom of my heart that your illness would spare you from bad experiences, that your life would not be so hard because of it now that it is otherwise easier,
With warmest regards

Liisa

too, I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year, Jürgen

Hi Mom and Dad,

It's been exactly a month since Christmas, so we're already taking steps towards EASTER. We made plans yesterday and decided that we would take ALL THE KIDS to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Can we all come, except for Jürgen? The children's Easter vacation starts on Saturday, March 21, and that would be a good day for Jürgen to take us to the airport. We would fly via Hamburg, where we would have a three-hour layover, and arrive in Helsinki at 5:20 p.m. Of course, another option would be to arrive the next day, Sunday, whichever suits you best. I mean: pick us up from the airport, we could stay for at least two weeks. The girls have three weeks of vacation, but we can't leave Jürgen alone for that long, and it might be too much of a burden for you. We have to fly back on the 8:00 a.m. flight from Seutula, but maybe we could stay with Lasse for the last night. I went to apply for a passport for Reinhard today, so things are progressing on our end, as long as you agree. We are eagerly awaiting your next letter. Many heartfelt thanks for the Finnish magazine and the renewal of the subscription. I would miss it very much if it didn't come. Here are some Christmas photos of our family and a newspaper clipping from last Saturday's carnival, where yours truly achieved great success in national costume. It's true, I got a big box of chocolates there, because the participants from different nations were announced, and there were as many as ten different countries represented. We had to say a few words in our native language into the microphones, and the crowd cheered even though they didn't understand a word. Afterwards, some gentlemen came to ask us to dance. They had been to Finland and came to praise how beautiful Finland is. One of them even knew that my national costume was from Ostrobothnia. We spent two evenings in a row at the carnival. On Friday, Jürgen even had to give a humorous presentation at the bowling club. It was a speech event, and we had a lot of fun.

Jürgen wore a tailcoat, silk trousers, pince-nez glasses, and a huge bow tie under his chin. I wore Jürgen's grandmother's ancient evening gown and a large flowered hat. On Saturday evening, there was another German-English club meeting in Wassenberg, from which the newspaper clipping is taken. Silja was very excited—now we have a famous mother—even though she hardly knows me from the blurry photo. We've been very busy, and two weeks ago I had guests. I spent almost all my free time at the end of the week preparing for the visit. But we had a really nice evening, and the guests didn't leave until half past two in the morning. It's been pretty warm here lately, so the kids haven't been able to go skating, even though Mirja wouldn't have been able to anyway, even if there had been ice, because she broke her arm again, almost in the same place as a year and a half ago. It's foggy today. Jürgen was in Wuppertal in his own car today, and I was a little worried that he would be late if he had to drive slowly, but he came home at the usual time. Today I sewed an Indian girl's costume for Silja, so that's ready for next week's party. On Sunday we're going to Ruoff in Cologne, which will be Reinhard's first long car trip. It'll be nice to show him off; he's a sweet kid. Thanks to my mom, I got another Christmas book. Airi from Ristijoki wrote that she also read the Suosalmi book over Christmas, but she didn't like it. This one, however, surprises me much more with its ideas. I really enjoy reading books like this, although I don't think Finns are quite as crazy as the books describe. Nowadays, it's just fashionable to write that way. There are sales on here right now, and for the first time I've taken advantage of them in a planned way, because you can get shoes and clothes at a much lower price and still get decent quality. Silja and Mirja got winter boots, all the girls got tights, and I bought Silja a winter coat. I bought myself a wool sweater and new shoes. On February 15, Silja will be playing in a youth music competition, so remember to keep your fingers crossed for her. She practices for 45 minutes every day, but she still makes mistakes. Her teacher wants Silja and a couple of other students to take part in the competition, so we'll see how it goes. Anja is now learning to write letters, and her reading is coming along quite well. She is very worried that she doesn't know Finnish and occasionally looks up words in her primer and asks about them. Silja and Mirja will receive their midterm report cards this week. Both of their math scores have been slightly lower than before, so they may no longer be the best in their class. Mirja also had a four-week break during which she was unable to do her math homework. She has completed them on a typewriter, but unfortunately she has not been able to take part in the tests.

With warmest regards,
Liisa

Dear Mother!

With the warmest birthday greetings, the whole of Liisa's gang remembers you, kisses to grandma from the right and left, in a few weeks in nature. I'm already getting excited about the trip, even though there's not much to be excited about. We will come on Sunday, March 23, because Silja, having participated in a piano playing competition in Heinsberg last Sunday, has to (at her teacher's request) still participate in a follow-up competition that is held on March 21 in Wuppertal. She does not expect any championship. I think it's important for her teacher to get a little mention of this for himself. Silja, as far as I know her, won't spend a minute longer at the piano because of this. It's more important for her to slide down the hill as snow finally came to us even for proper sledding. I first carted the rugs onto the snowy mound and now rejoice in the fresh scent and sight.

Reinhard learns to walk on February 8th, by then it was only cautious stepping. Now he goes where his mind goes, but funny boy is afraid of the snow, or maybe he's afraid because he fell twice onto his stomach from the sled. Hopefully there is still snow in Finland by the end of March, so that I too could go skiing, as well as Silja and Mirja. Sadly, there are no ski holidays here. We were walking in the forest on Sunday. There were lots of hare tracks here. There must be a lot of hares, the ground had been trampled back and forth. Jürgen saw a deer, but it ran by so quickly that I didn't have time to see. The slippers fit Jürgen and me. Anja's slippers would fit in size, but they do not go on the foot, as their tops are tight from the edge. She also got slippers from us, so I'll let the slippers rest for Reinhard.

There's no new baby expected here. I was thinking about Onerva's child when I wrote about the family growing and the next holder of the Lapland slippers. I do have some usable baby stuff to still send to Onerva, like shirts, pants, flannel diapers, wool cardigans, slippers, and more. I don't think I'll keep them for myself anymore. Perhaps we have learned enough that no more children will come and if somehow it would happen, we can always get new ones. My Christmas stars have gotten really splendid flowers with all three red tops. I kept them for a long time wrapped in aluminum foil, then the color develops well.

And now once again, the warmest birthday greetings,
a warm kiss,

from Liisa.

Mom and Dad, dearest!

I'm sorry to write and cancel our visit. Yesterday, while we were in Bonn, Reinhard spilled hot coffee on himself and suffered such severe burns on his right arm, from his wrist to his elbow, that I am now unable to travel with him. Therefore, we must postpone our trip for the time being. I can't say yet for how long. If all goes well, we may still come after Easter, but otherwise not until summer. If it's summer, we'll come for Dad's birthday. Aunt Grete had invited us to her place, but Mom is currently in Bonn. I canceled our trip on Saturday because Reinhard had a slight fever, cough, and runny nose. On Sunday morning, however, he was so lively that we decided to go anyway. It would have been embarrassing not to go when the others had prepared for guests, and Jürgen didn't want to go without me. Just as we were about to leave, the accident happened. Without anyone noticing, Reinhard knocked over the coffee pot from the low serving table. The burn looked bad, so we drove him straight to the hospital, where he received first aid, and then hurried home and back to the hospital again. He should have been admitted to the hospital, but since there were no beds available, he is being treated at home. His hand is tied to the edge of the bed so that the blood can drain from his fingers. I don't know how long this phase will last, but if he heals normally, it will take about three weeks. Let's hope that's the case. It's so sad to write a letter like this. I know that you were looking forward to our visit as much as we were looking forward to next Sunday, but even though it has been canceled, we will come sooner or later. The tickets had already been purchased, so I will go to the travel agency today to arrange that and send you a telegram.

With warmest regards, Liisa and Jürgen
PS Please inform Lasse of the cancellation.

Hello!
Here they are at last, our thanks on behalf of all of us. It was wonderful to be there and to be so well looked after. It was such a heartwarming experience for me when all my sisters and brothers and you, my dear parents, welcomed us as if we had never been away. We weren't treated like strangers. That's why I felt so at home. I was a little afraid that you would have aged a lot in four years and changed a little, but that wasn't the case, and I feel relieved about that. I also think it's great that the children were, as always, so enthusiastic about Finland and its surroundings. They were especially lucky that there was still so much snow and they got to go skiing. In their opinion, they have already become real skiing champions. I had forgotten about the glistening snowdrifts and clear skies for many years. The weather here is perpetually slushy, which can make one feel gloomy. Our neighbors complain that they have not seen the sun for half a year. When we arrived, the sun was shining, but since Monday it has been gray and cool. Still, the rain has brought out the buds on the birch trees and the spring flowers. The white snowdrops are already drooping. At least the daffodils look cheerful and heartwarming despite everything. Yesterday we had rhubarb soup made from our own rhubarb, and the girls haven't taken off their short sleeves and knee socks, but the wind isn't really tempting us to put on lighter clothes. We still need to keep warm, otherwise we would feel cold. The girls had exams at school right away, but luckily they went well, even though we hadn't practiced. Reinhard got his measles vaccination on Monday, which has now kicked in.

Jürgen was of course happy to see us arrive safely and in good health. Today he left for three days in Wuppertal for some kind of event, and three men left from here, so I was left with the car. So I have time to organize a coffee party to show off my new cups. Customs didn't ask about them, so at least I saved on the fees and a lot else, but I would have needed two days in Helsinki, so it's good that I had already bought the fabrics for the girls in Perniö. Silja's skirt will be ready soon, and the other two are fighting over who will be next. Reinhard isn't fighting; he's happy because there are lots of things to develop around here. At least we can sleep until six here. On Sunday morning, I dressed him at six and went back to bed. He plays happily until eight, when I get up and, upon seeing me, immediately remembers that he is hungry. If it had been Grandpa, he would have gotten his porridge earlier. It turns out that Silja's piano skills are quite rustic, just as I thought. The winners are the children of music teachers or those top talents who have already studied at the music academy. She is not upset about losing at all; fortunately, she is not overly ambitious. I guess Mom is home by now. Nurmi said that someone from Salo will come and show you how to use the washing machine if you want and if you're afraid of the new appliance. My laundry had bad luck again today. First I hung it in the attic, then the weather turned nice, so I took it outside, but then it rained and the laundry got wet again, so I took it back to the attic to dry. That's enough fuss for now.

Warmest regards from all of us,
Liisa

Hello mom and dad! Heinsberg, August 2, 1970

It's the latter part of the summer, with morning dew flowing, fog and then humid heat. Sunday is almost like any other day except that Jyrgen goes to work only at half past nine. Reinhard pooped his pants twice, but then came a small quiet moment to sit on the swing and write. Heartfelt thanks for the mother's letter and father's handwriting. Good luck with your plans, are the strawberry plants already in the ground? We planted new seedlings this week, the previous ones were also Senga Sengana started to be small in size after three years. I hope mother has started using the new washing machine, although I understand the initial criticism. When we had to change our pulsator into a drum machine, we knew what we lost and what we gained. The loss meant a little more water and detergent, a larger electricity bill, and a slightly longer washing time. But on the plus side, you have to count labor savings and pleasant handling. There is no need to dress for laundry, not to be in damp steam, and it can be done entirely as sidelines. The only thing that still sometimes upsets me is that there is not always enough colorful laundry detergent to fill the machine. In my opinion, mother's illness is a reason that forgives those additional costs and perhaps saves from a hospital trip, which would otherwise result from laundry day. Couldn't a large part of that garbage be composted, at least the papers would rot. This quiet moment ended this time. It's 12 o'clock, the children came from church, Reinhard demands food and dinner must be cooked for others as well. It's really hot, but we can't go swimming because Jyrgen is on Sunday shift. One week and one day left until the holiday begins. And now the coffee has been drunk, but the peace was fleeting because Reinhardt climbed on my back. Although he hasn't been spoiled too much with cars, the car is his most favorite toy. They are driven with a sputtering mouth. He also likes to look at picture books and emotions are elicited in a moo-moo and woof-woof and a car.

First he thought birds were also woof-woof, he showed me a swallow sitting on an electrical wire and said woof woof, but then he started calling it piip -piip. When a fly and a cuckoo are also counted, this constitutes knowledge about animals for a one and a half year old. There have been no cats nearby that he would have learned to know them, and there have not been any sheep either. Reinhard has learned to drink from a cup and eat a sandwich from hand. He already has 12 teeth and a canine tooth is coming down below. When we are swimming, Reinhard comes well into the water and laughs and enjoys when we splash him but doesn't splash with his hands even though he does it in the bathtub. On the beach, he rolls around in the sand in happiness, it's obvious pleasure to be without plastic pants. I allow him to run at home when it's hot. But sometimes it happens that the other day he had taken two bottles from the medicine cabinet. One had gasoline, the other cough medicine. And there was a big puddle on the floor. I commanded the girls just in case to smell if it maybe was gasoline as it is flammable. The girls sniffed that it didn't smell like gasoline, but what if it was cough medicine, then I smelled it with my own nose. I concluded that it was just pee. Nothing else happens here other than this everyday life. I have canned and still get cherries and currants from the neighbor, maybe gooseberries as well. The garden is starting to bloom, sweet peas, snapdragons, cosmos flowers, heather flowers, marigolds, and others. The first tomato is red! Onions harvested, they were small this year, many almost the same size as in the spring when planting. The cabbage heads are beginning to swell and the carrots are big, but the leeks are still very skinny. The apple trees drop their half-ripe fruits. Reinhard and Anja take care of eating them. Other than that, Reinhard learned all by himself to thank. He is very polite and rarely forgets to say 'thank you', when given something.
When giving to others he also says thanks. I received a letter from Arja and then heard both about the party that funeral, relieved that we unknowingly participated in the wreath. I was plagued by a guilty conscience about it because I kept meaning to write to dad about it but then it didn't happen. I didn't bother to send it via Fleurop because I wasn't sure when the funeral would be held. Because of Leena's inertia, I felt deeply bothered even though Jürgen said that you did write a letter already. Arja said that the boys were not particularly upset. I'm sure it still cast a shadow on them, even if the relationship with their father was abnormal. In fact, their life is now becoming more normal, if Leena is able to be at home enough from her work. Of course, the boys need their mother and the feeling of home she creates, even though they have been used to being without her, but then at least Kaarlo was at home. Maybe Leena now rather wants to strive further south in Finland and closer to you there at home - I am then again waiting a detailed letter from mother, because no one else recounts things so precisely e.g. who gave the gold watch and who gave the crystal vase? Does Las's daughter become mother's namesake? Arja wrote that Sohvi will be baptized on Wednesday. Surely you will be in Vihti then. Doesn't Päivi then make return bike rides, if she once goes to Sweden on her holiday. The girls and I were disappointed when Dad's trip here didn't happen yet, but next summer I won't let you go. The journey from Helsinki to Travemünde is wonderful and from there we can come even if we have to pick you up. It would be so nice to see Leena after a long time. You won't believe how Silja and Mirja regret that they weren't born Finnish. They would rather be in Finland where winter has snow and summer has lakes, real swings, and a sauna! It's manna for my soul when I hear new sentences from them unexpectedly. The best part of Sunday is over, I should stop here. Our address in the Netherlands from 15.8.-5.9 is GALLANTSOOG, SANDEPARK GROOTE KEETEN NR 101, HOLLAND
Heartfelt greetings,
Liisa

Mom and Dad, dearest
When was the last time I wrote to you? In July, I think. My vacation only gave me enough energy to write cards. Now that wonderful time is over. Everyone is back at work, and the weather turned bad as soon as we returned, with storms and cold temperatures, but now, fortunately, it is beautiful again and so warm that I am sitting in my garden chair under the apple trees writing. But let's turn back the clock. Of course, we were excited to see what kind of place we would end up in, but to our great satisfaction, the vacation cottage was neat, comfortable, and satisfying in every way. The cottage village must have been established a few years ago, because the bushes, lawns, flower beds, and everything else were already man-sized and set the cottages a little more individual peace and quiet. It was a 10-minute walk to the beach, but we usually drove halfway because Reinhard had a stroller with us, and it would have sunk into the thick sand. The first week was fairly calm, with a couple of light showers, but we still went to the beach every day, if not for a walk. The waves of the North Sea are an experience in themselves. The bigger the waves, the louder the roar. The beach is covered in fine white sand. Behind the wide strip of beach are sand dunes, which the Dutch lovingly cultivate with flowers. For them, it is a matter of protection against the sea.

As we stood on the dunes, it felt as if the horizon of the land was lower than that of the sea. Gallantsoog is a very small village in the municipality of Groote Keete, where we were even smaller. Just a few farmhouses, a couple of shops, and two or three restaurants. Still, there were quite a lot of summer visitors. Most of them were Germans, who, in their peaceful way, have "occupied" the Netherlands much more effectively than Hitler's forces. Otherwise, the Dutch are friendly towards Germans, and I did not notice any hostility, unlike in Denmark a couple of years ago. The Dutch are also very fond of children. Children were spoken to and people were interested in them. They called Reinhard "lekkerding," which is best translated as "sweet creature." although lekker actually means "delicious." In the Netherlands, one simply cannot fail to notice the general cleanliness and orderliness. You can see inside everyone's windows, as the windows are large and low, and the screens cover at most half of the upper part of the window. They have lots of knick-knacks, antiques, and flowers. The apartments look really cozy. It is remarkable that you never meet rude or arrogant people; the workers look as reserved and civilized as the intelligentsia in any other country, and their work clothes always look freshly washed. We visited Schaagen on market day, when people wear traditional costumes for tourists in the summer and, as an added attraction, drive around in old-fashioned horse-drawn carriages, children dance in clogs at the market, and musicians walk around playing accordions and, of course, collecting coins. Anja disappeared in the crowd and was only found in police custody. We were already getting nervous.

The second week of our vacation was hot and cloudless. We spent our days from morning to evening on the beach while the children played in the sand. Anja couldn't overcome her fear of water. She screamed hysterically and stiff with fear, "Silja, save me!" when Jyrgen tried to teach her how to swim. Even though the sea was almost calm and Reinhard went into the water up to his neck, laughing, Anja was not encouraged. Reinhard was ultimately quite enthusiastic about the water, even to the point of being reckless. On the beach, he rolled around in the warm sand, enjoying the freedom of being without pants. It was a pleasure to watch. At times, he slept on the sand, as we couldn't bring ourselves to go home before two or three in the afternoon. In between, we played badminton on the lawn. We had German neighbors on both sides. It didn't take long for the children to get to know each other. After that, Reinhard didn't find much to do with me, because the boy had toy cars with him and Reinhard suddenly developed a passion for cars. Toy cars were no longer enough for him. He had to let Jürgen drive first, and the neighbors would lift him into his car when he was always fiddling with the steering wheel.

The last week was a little cooler, but it didn't rain. In the afternoons, we took short trips around the area. We visited the unique little houses along the canal street in Zaandam and saw the cottage where Tsar Peter had lived while studying shipbuilding. Nikolai II had a brick house built around the cottage to make it more durable. But Anja got scared and wet her pants in the tsar's yard, so we had to hurry away. I wonder if the guide realized where that puddle had come from. In Leiden, we went to a museum, but Reinhard only wanted to look out the window at the cars and ships, so that trip wasn't entirely successful either. October 4, that's how time passes when you devote yourself to your family and work and only entertain yourself by writing letters on Sundays. Uncle Gotthard from America spent a weekend with us on his vacation in Europe. Until the beginning of October, it had been wonderfully beautiful and warm, but the change of month brought a change in the weather, and now it is raining and the heating creates a cozy atmosphere. Speaking of heating, I was immediately annoyed when I heard from my neighbors that coal prices have fallen since the summer. Until now, summer coal deliveries have always been cheaper, but now it's the opposite, so we bought a full basement coal supply in July.

The children's school started right after we returned from Holland. Anja, a first grader, is an eager student, and if this continues, she won't need much supervision. Silja chose English as her first foreign language, and she is also happy with the novelty of it at school. She immediately got a six in her first math test, so the difficulties are coming as we predicted. Then all three of them started studying music. There is a music school here where Silja's piano teacher is a teacher, and at his recommendation, Silja became a piano student instead of a private student. Mirja is studying the flute and Anja is receiving early music education, which is the most fun of all. They have small red xylophones that are designed specifically for small children. They also have piano keys, and learning notes is like a fun game these days. Anja's school doesn't start until 10 a.m., so we haven't had any trouble with braids and morning rush yet. On Saturdays, she goes at 8 a.m., and then Mirja combs her sister's hair. During the summer holidays, it was the turn of each of the older sisters to do this. They have been vain since they were little, and combing hair is a fun chore for them.

Silja and Mirja's hair reaches their shoulders, which is fashionable, but of course it bothers them, so sometimes we pull it back into a ponytail and sometimes we tuck it behind their ears. A love of horses is something that unites all three of them. In Holland, they saw lots of horses and especially ponies, and when they came home, they were so excited that they cleaned and groomed the trash cans, fed and watered these imaginary horses, and rode them in a game of one comrade being the riding instructor and giving orders. So there was nothing else to do but take them to a real pony riding lesson. Jürgen and I were afraid for them as they took turns climbing into the saddle and, under the guidance of the pony's owner, had their first five minutes of riding. It was a rather unruly pony that kept trying to go down, and the girls just laughed, even though I thought they would turn pale with fear, as I would have done, but they loved it and wanted to do it again soon.

Besides, Silja and Mirja have been milking cows in that meadow where they graze every evening. They watch as they are first milked by machine and then by hand. They tried it themselves with the calmest cows, and they did get some milk. My job has been preserving food and washing windows and curtains. Then the ladies from the neighborhood came over for coffee, as they remembered me with a birthday present, and one week's special task was to sew the "Poncho" cape that Silja wanted instead of a winter coat. Silja doesn't have much winter clothing left, and I don't know much about winter clothing, so new ones have to be sewn, and I would be happy to sew again after a long break. Last Saturday, we picked some apples from the tree, but most of them still need to be picked. Yesterday it rained and I was at the hairdresser's getting a perm, because in the evening we were at the English-German club's autumn dance, from which we returned home at four in the morning. Almost all the ladies (except me) wore long evening gowns, so it seems that maxi fashion is haunting their minds, as no one used to wear evening gowns there before. So next time I'll have to get myself a wardrobe full of them, even though I won't have much use for them.

Reinhard has grown a lot, weighing 15 kg and growing so tall that he can reach the door handles and open them. Nothing is safe from him anymore, and he is also in great danger now that he knows how to open the gate to the street. The neighbor lady has rescued him from there a few times. Sometimes I have noticed that someone has left the gate unlocked again. Cars naturally attract attention, and we can only hope that nothing happens to our son now that it is raining heavily and wet, as he can no longer be allowed outside alone for hours on end. Our son speaks Finnish and German and understands both languages well. He repeats many words more or less correctly. "Saksek" means scissors, and "ajaa autoa" means to drive a car. This important expression is clear to him in both languages. He can tell a tractor and a car apart by the sound they make. If he doesn't happen to see the tractor, he calls it "takto." He really likes cheese. We brought Edam cheese back from Holland as a souvenir when we visited there. It is very old and hard, but delicious. Once at the dinner table, Jürgen decided to teach Reinhard that cheese is "Käse" in German. Jürgen showed him the cheese and said "Käse." We all shouted in unison "juusto" "juusto." Reinhard looked puzzled and then solved the problem in his own way: "nam nam," he said, and then it was our turn to marvel at the boy's diplomatic skills.

When he waves goodbye, he says "bye bye" in both languages, one after the other. While the girls were playing with the trash can horses, Reinhard's thumb got stuck in the gap in the lid, which caused his nails to come off and has been quite painful. The burn scars are still visible, although perhaps a little less so than in the spring. We still haven't received the doctor's bill for the treatment. Last night, he fell headfirst from the bed, which he was lying on the edge of. It seems like he has had enough accidents, but he doesn't learn his lesson. This morning, he was standing on the edge of his bed again.

Next week, Lapuainen morsian (The Lapua Bride) will be on TV in Finnish. I'm trying to persuade Jürgen to buy a television by then. Have you seen any pictures of it yet? But otherwise, I think that next summer we have to come with Dad and Leena, and this time it has to happen for real. Mom (Anpoppi) is coming for a few days at the end of October last week. I almost caught a hare in the yard; I would have caught it with my bare hands without a doubt. It was sleeping so soundly that it didn't even flinch when I poked it awake. Only when I started beating the bushes next to its hiding place and almost hit it on the snout did it wake up and take off. I cursed my stupidity a little too late. It had eaten the best of the cabbage while we were in Holland.

Well, hey, greetings to everyone
Liisa and everyone else

Heinsberg, 13th December 1970
Merry Christmas

The darkest time of the year and the celebration of candles are approaching again and a Christmas greeting should rustle onto paper lively. Grandma and grandpa's Santa package arrived yesterday. And my own gifts, this time only for my own family, unless this little greeting to the Perniö Santa is taken into account, are pretty much ready, but otherwise I haven't acted for Christmas yet as I haven't bought neither ham nor turnip yet. Christmas baking will also wait until next week, as we've been painting the house and it will continue at least until Wednesday. After giving permission and stalling, now the girls are having their own toilet built in the attic and at the same time the color of the kitchen and hallway walls were improved. In the hallway, it turned out that the beautiful blue color did not become even, so it must be painted at least once more. So, our house smells like fresh paint and Christmas is still feeling new. I have to thank for mother's long letter before continuing with other things. Hopefully, you will have a snowy Christmas. Such hope is in vain here.

But maybe I'll be banished to Finland for Christmas, as I've forgotten to renew my passport in time once again. I need to take action tomorrow to get a new one, why can't it be issued for a longer period, 5 years goes by so quickly. If I remember correctly, I need an official certificate from the parish when applying, could you Mum please send me it as soon as possible. I didn't even know about Pekka and Arja's trip to Amsterdam. Amsterdam seems so close to Heinsberg to me, my first thought was that we could have met up as well. Only then did I notice that the Finns do not travel to Central Europe to meet someone, but to see the sights. This fall has gone by slowly as usual. There has been enough work and occasionally there have been little visits to brighten up the weekend.

Once we were shopping in Düsseldorf for a day, but otherwise I haven't moved anywhere from Heinsberg. After a visit to Mutti, no relatives have been seen either. We were invited to Bonn on December 8th, but we can't leave there on a weekday, and the kids would have been left at home alone. It was also a strange invitation to Onkel Fritz's 85th birthday, even though he has been in the grave for two years already. The family's health has only wavered with Silja and Reinhard. Silja had a week's flu and Reinhard a day or two with Angina, others just had a cold and cough. The autumn has been beautiful and warm, with little wind and rain and mist quite rarely. Dry and warm - both parts don't suit Jürgen as asthma keeps showing up every now and then, even though it usually disappears in the fall. Jürgen always keeps the window open in the office so that all guests are first horrified by the cold. His body generates so much heat that he doesn't need much winter clothes either. I haven't gotten him to put on a winter jacket, even though there were puddles frozen all around yesterday morning. Above all, Jürgen is slowly considering leaving Glanzstoff, whose future he currently sees as bleak, at least the business's finances are worrying and when a notice period lasts two years for him, and his current job isn't the most fun or easy, even though the pay is good, he should think about it before the new year if factories are being shut down. Oberbruch, however, makes profits and the idea of closing it will probably not come up at least in the next few years, - so managers freed from other factories will be taking all the better places and Jürgen probably couldn't get away from his current job very quickly. This does not please him at all and he does not want to stay in that position for many years, on the other hand, he should change before becoming a too old chap, which nobody then wants anymore. Overall, he would rather work in a state office. The industrial atmosphere is harsh everywhere, not just at Glanzstoff. So Jürgen is in such moods - I'm on standby. But the neighbors say that Glanzstoff has been stuck in the mire before.

Silja, Mirja and Anja send heartfelt kisses through me as a Christmas greeting to their grandmother, grandfather and godmother. I have not had time to make Christmas presents with them, so this year there will not be any pot holders or any other creative ideas. Silja enjoys and does a lot of handcrafts at school, but guidance is always a very important factor in the outcome. The two older ones are far beyond my school handicraft skills, but because of the music lessons, she has less time and willingness for useful work. Books strongly appeal to them and mum wants to include going outside as well. Last Sunday we tried to go horse riding with them, which they love a lot, but the owner of the ponies has gone to sell in a department store in Dusseldorf for Christmas and the ponies are on Christmas vacation. However, we met him at the animal park (?), where you can not only ride but also observe lions and other wild animals (and he was there too) from the car. But when driving through all the lions, the doors and windows must be kept closed; everyone else could walk and pat, how funny to walk among llamas, zebras, hippopotamuses, camels and ostriches. The monkeys were all in cages though, they would otherwise run away. They survive through the winter outside and are terribly tame and curious. In the winter there are fewer visitors there. In the summer I wonder why the animals don't die of carbon monoxide poisoning from the exhaust gases.

Reinhard is busy with his cars, his favorite reading is the Finnish book that the girls once received as a gift from you, since it has a lot of cars and boats that he refers to it as a car book, especially when sitting on the potty there always has to be a book in front. I stubbornly continue to speak to him in Finnish and thus he has become bilingual and always says everything in both languages. He refers to any drink as milk and so it is that Godmother Urlass, with whom he often spends his mornings for an hour or two, also has to learn Finnish. He loves his godmother a lot. He calls the phone Urlassfone, because in his opinion it is mostly used to call his godmother. And from the photo album he wants to look at the page with pictures of his own christening and godmother. The pen and paper are for drawing car and tractor pictures. He himself tries eagerly to manage to draw a car image, it has two wheels and a large circle connects both. I guess I will soon also become a car model designer since either a car or a tractor must appear on the paper. When going to bed in the evening he wants a car and a tractor next to him. He is only interested in dolls because they say automatically "mom," and he is interested how their legs are attached to the body. Anja and others scream in horror when they see Reinhard analysing their children.

Anja has done reasonably well in school. However, Mirja is not the first in her class since a new boy moved to the neighborhood, who is more accomplished, partially due to coming from a better school. Silja has regularly received sixes on her math tests, but English has gone slightly better and she likes attending school. There is indeed a dire shortage of teachers and lessons below the actual requirements. However, now that a new school building has been completed, perhaps we will gradually get more teaching staff, the student number is currently over 800. Silja's best friend Monika moved away this autumn, so Silja doesn't really have good friends at the moment. The neighbor's girl, who is in the same class, seems to Silja to be a shallow type, although she is one of the most popular girls in class. In this, Silja is quite correct. We are still enjoying the blessing of the apple harvest and the abundance of vegetables. The apples are getting wrinkled, but there is nothing else wrong with them. It's a shame to leave half a page blank, but I have to hurry so that the mail will deliver this before Christmas. Very, very joyous Christmas to all of you, warm togetherness, and also lots of happiness for the soon that's coming new year, which in turn brings mother's special day with it.

With warmest Christmas greetings,
all of us
Jürgen, Liisa, Silja, Mirja, Anja and Reinhard.

Heinsberg, 2. 1. 1971
Snowy January!
Writing the new year number already feels familiar, even though I have, to tell the truth, just written it for the first time. The children have been writing letters. Anja alone has written four, but her inspiration still comes from the inherited fountain pen. Unfortunately, grandma and grandpa's letter suffered a small accident, Anja brought it to show in the kitchen and then put it on the lid of a margarine box, which couldn't refrain from leaving its mark on Anja's firstborn work. I certainly didn't write letters when I was 6 years old, let alone as long as my own daughter does, and although there are a lot of errors in it, with good will, you can always understand her letters.

Apparently, she likes to write with big initial letters, since many words are with a big letter in te middle. Here is a warm thank you to Santa's porridge maker and Santa for the presents from Korvatunturi. I have only had a short look at my book, so I save my review for the next time, instead the fragrant pan coaster has from the beginning got under the warm coffee pot and it is very beautiful and liked. Everyone pulled deep breaths of their gift's smell, except for Reinhard, who put everything in his mouth and tasted cars and his tractors and then he hasn't given them up ever since.

Otherwise, Christmas went as usual. We were alone as Tante Grete was a guest at Mutti's. And since Mutti was at our place last Christmas, it was Aggie's turn this time anyway. I did not overly tire myself with big Christmas preparations with the kids. We baked four sorts of gingerbread cookies and a gingerbread house, and buns on the eve of Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, I baked a slightly (4kg) rutabaga casserole and the meal was enjoyed in a festive atmosphere. Jürgen had ham three times like always on Christmas Eve. He couldn't resist it. We had decorated the tree the previous evening, so we even got to take an afternoon nap with Reinhard before we had coffee as a whole family. Usually Jürgen and I drink coffee alone and the kids eat their bottle or rusk or biscuit from hand at some point. Silja sometimes gets a cup of coffee. Others drink juice or water. This time, Santa Claus came before the start of the party and carried his packages to the foot of the tree to wait for the distribution moment. Jürgen lit the candles and the children came from the dimly lit hallway to the lit living room. "Fire is burning" was Reinhard's comment. He devotedly watched the candles while others were singing. Silja played along with Mirja's flute and each recited a poem as usual. Actually, Silja and Mirja were supposed to sing in the choir on Christmas Eve, but since it was a catholic service, it would have lasted from five to seven, we said they didn't need to go there, otherwise there wouldn't have been any time left for our own chrismas party, as the little ones also have to go to bed on Christmas. Santa Claus was generous and everyone was satisfied. Silja jumped three times into the air when a fashionable cap was in her package.

Lucky that the Burgers spent their Christmas at their parents' place, otherwise they might have been scared of the racket. Reinhard got a (in my eyes small) horse on which he can ride. It has wheels underneath. Anja had wished for a pram, but gets a doll's pram. Apparently, she was not disappointed with grandpa's choice and Reinhard immediately turned it into a car. He called his aunt 10 times with a toy phone and named the phone Urlaphone instead of telefonen. (since his aunt's name is Urlass). From her, Reinhard got a really big tractor that you can even ride outside when his legs will grow so that they reach the pedals. Luckily, the girls are not upset about practical gifts, the older ones got more stuff for their room. Mirja a bedside table and a lamp and Silja a bookshelf, but on the other hand, their favorite gifts are books and for Silja, I re-covered a lamb that Päivi once made for Christmas. It is so dear that she would take it to bed in the evening. Bo was poor already completely bald from just being worn out from love and thus got a new coat. This Christmas, for once, I made handmade gifts for everyone except Reinhard. It was cold before Christmas, ditches ice-cold - girls on skates. It was not very strong though, Mirja sank into the unpleasantly smelling wastewater sludge with her winter boots and I had to wash the boots in the middle of things on the Monday after Christmas. Jürgen did not go to the factory but we took the sled and skates and drove to Eiffel, where there was snow on the ground and frost on the trees, it was so beautiful, felt like a real winter. We took a long walk and tried to put up with the boy's complaining, his boots were too tight and walking was difficult and slow, and in the sled, he was afraid to sit alone, but refused to sit with anyone but me. And we both can be pulled only rarely, because there were quite a many stones under the thin snow, snow had not yet completely covered the earth. The next day it snowed more here too, Christmas was already snowy (2-3 cm of snow).

The children got to go sledding down the hill and the eternal fight over the sled began. During Christmas, each child is obliged to take their brother out to play in turns. He prefers to be with Mirja. On Sunday, I was also in the sled hill and Reinhard sledded eagerly with us, I even lifted Silja into the same sled. Today we had large mats to whip in the snow. I've noticed that the first week of January is sure to be snowy here. At the turn of the year, the children were allowed to stay up late again. As per old tradition, we played games, Reinhard disappeared into dreamland around nine. Anja lasted until half past ten, but then she had to be lifted and put to sleep, but she demanded a sure promise that she would be awakened at midnight. It was difficult, but she had to see the flight of the rockets. The downstairs people popped really terrible bangs, you would have thought the shoes were burning if they were nearby at all. Thanks for the accessibility certificate, I got my passport right after Christmas and now I have a residence permit pending, then I can rest for the next five years. Then the next thing will come mainly to Dad, because I am loyally a Finnish citizen, so we thought about the possibility of investing the savings accumulated from our housing savings, which we can access in a year, in a plot in Finland. It would of course come in my name, because there should be no obstacle why I couldn't own land without reservation in my father's land. The matter is of course complicated, because most likely we won't build anything on it, but it is primarily an investment for us, which should at least maintain its value, or even better, increase in value so that it can be sold at a profit when the need for money arises some time.

The next question is: Should we buy arable land, forest or plot of land, and it would be nice if you father could look and inquire a little. After all, you know a bit wider area than just in Perniö. Where could it be nicer if it is a field, it could perhaps be ploughed. Forest seems to cause its owner care and other costs, so it is probably best to give up on it (although Jürgen is in favor of the forest) a waterfront plot would be nice in that one could perhaps really build a summer cottage someday, or then considering a rise in value from the edge of a growing village a plot area, which one can definitely sell whenever one wants. We will have about 18,000-20,000 DM available. Could you, Father, also write what else is involved in such a deal, means taxation, costs arising from separation, registration of title and other official stuff. Would you think we should get involved? The idea came originally from Jürgen. He would like to have land, but not from Germany where it is cramped and the price of land is so high that it may well be that one day the state will intervene in the course of affairs and set prices or take over the whole arrangement. He thinks that in a developing country like Finland where there is still plenty of space, it is safer to own land. Now think about this, Father. Can you bother with such a chore at all, because of course we would have to rely on you in everything, your assistance.

Tomorrow will mark 10 years since I left Finland. A lot has happened in ten years. Fortunately, most of it has been positive. It would be fun to know what the next ten years will bring, if one lives to see. One slowly begins to notice that the eldest children are not quite children anymore. Silja is starting her independence from her own decision: her hair hangs largely on her shoulders, and if you try to hint about shortening it, tears start to flow and "you don't understand anything at all" comes out as a reprimand from the girl's mouth. I asked again yesterday evening. She said that they hang so sadly straight. So I had to curl the ends a bit, what other advice was there. But she wasn't quite satisfied this morning, too many curls were combed straight again with water, only a little was left to curl upwards on the ends.

Between Christmas and New Year, I sewed new ski pants for Silja. This week, I should probably finish Mirja's gown, although Mirja is more concerned about her carnival costume. Here's Anja's letter:
"dear grandma and grandpa! I am doing well. Are you too? There's a bit of snow here. I like the jewelry box you have donated to us. I have already eaten all the candies and I was going down the slide for the first time I haven't yet dared to come down. and mother was first going down with reinhard: and after mother had gone down with reinhard, and then I also went down and reinhard has a tractor and I got a doll stroller. We got to stay up until twelve o'clock on Sylvester's night and Reinhard is very happy about the Volvo and Tractor and Car
dear Grandma and Grandpa,
your Anja."

It will be fun to hear how Perniö's Christmas went and if there was snow like here. Now, we even have skiing weather. Our Christmas ends here, in Bavaria they celebrated Epiphany, but the locals do not. I have diminished in Jürgen's eyes: I got a robe (size 38), a pyjama and a gown (size 40) as Christmas gift. At least, I have to replace the pyjama for a larger size. Fortunately, the robe is passable. It is a lovely pale blue velvet. The children were invited free of charge by the German-English club to the Mönchengladbach Theater and a theater also visited Heinsberg with a children's program. Unfortunately, local schools do not organize any kind of Christmas party, only a small common event if Mirja read a poem, but it is poor for the children themselves. To both of you, dear parents, I wish a very happy new year, health, and lots of good news in mom's milestone year.

With heartfelt greetings,
Liisa

Heinsberg 31.1.71
Hi, family in Perniö:
Perniönseudun Lehti and Suomen Kuvalehti will brighten up Heinsberg's often rather dull life at the turn of the week this year, heartfelt thanks to both. If only you knew how deeply these thanks come from the heart. Perniönseudun Lehti came out on Mondays by the way, Suomen Kuvalehti comes out unevenly, I can't really say which days of the week, maybe Mondays or Tuesdays, sometimes Saturdays a week late. At the beginning of the year it always takes a couple of weeks longer before it starts coming out, but there must be a reason. Perniönseudun Lehti has changed its character a bit, the advertising space has decreased, the total space has increased, and it has all gone to the benefit of the text, which means that the actual profitability is better, unless it then comes back through increased circulation. At one time it had a competitor, is that still alive? The editor-in-chief should intervene in the texts of clumsy writers like B. Kari and improve their Finnish style. Whose text was that article about Enola's blacksmith? Of course, we'll keep our fingers crossed for Leena. The move would probably do her all the best. I don't understand why she's not being considered. After all, she already has a lot of experience in her field and isn't yet so old that it would be said that she would become a pension burden on the municipality too soon. I'll keep my fingers crossed all day tomorrow.

14.2.
Happy birthday to my mother! The whole family joins in wishing the seventy-year-old increasing health and the same cheerfulness as before, we still want to visit grandma and grandpa in Perniö every couple of years and besides, who would remember me otherwise with letters and news from home. We have agreed with others about the gift and after a telephone conversation that led to the result, I was told that a trip to Stockholm is on the cards. So the actual birthday table was left empty, but I hope the trip will tempt you even if it doesn't go all the way to America. Of course, I have wondered if it might come true, because you always hesitated to go because of your asthma, but since you dared to go to Turku for a day, I don't think the risk is any greater. I wouldn't have suggested Stockholm myself, though, because in my memories it has always been that tiring stopover on the way to Hamburg, where I've wandered around quite penniless, hungry and half-asleep due to the poor rest from the ship journey. I would recommend flying on the outward journey and taking a flight on the return journey, as you can then rest from the stresses of the journey at home, and you can even come by ship, which is also a new experience. Flying is definitely the most comfortable way to travel, while ship travel is probably the most stressful, in my opinion, because I don't sleep very well with noise. Let the children hear it now. I'm also waiting for dad and Leena to decide on their trip here, we've agreed on around Easter, although we can come in the summer. We're going on holiday to Denmark by the sea at the beginning of July for three weeks. The rental correspondence for the cottage is currently underway, so far it seems that Denmark has become quite expensive since last we saw it. The noise of the ship engine attracts the children around like flies to sugar. Reinhard must be allowed to write or he will roar so that no one can get anything done. xxx It is generally difficult to concentrate on the letter on a Sunday afternoon, even though I had firmly decided that it must be finished today, because when the plot is interrupted and the letter is left to rest for two weeks, as has happened here due to various visits, you no longer know what you originally intended to write. There has been no "look" branded plastic film here on salses.

Similar thin plastic wrap is sold as a cover for refrigerator containers and other things, it sticks to the edges of the containers by itself, but I don't think it can be used for baking. Aluminum foil, on the other hand, has been available everywhere for baking for a few years now. Baking paper is not yet available here, who knows what those salesmen are coming up with again. It would be best if we could write a little every day, then our letter would have such a natural immediacy and in places features reminiscent of the life story of Rasavilius the Peacebreaker. Rasavilius the Peacebreaker is, of course, Reinhard. His day might go like this: (true story) First thing in the morning, Reinhard the Peacebreaker climbed onto his father's desk chair, unscrewed his mother's and father's fountain pens and drank as much ink as he could get out by sucking. Then he accidentally picked up a piece of paper that was on the table and wrote a few words on it in his own language and also drew a car. Unfortunately, the letter happened to be a document from his father and it became a reprimand for his mother for not keeping a better eye on her son. While his mother was busy in the kitchen, Reinhard stayed in the children's room, he opened Silja's desk drawer and this time drank the spare cartridge of Silja's fountain pen, then he ran into the kitchen to show his face to his mother, who was trying to get the blue color off his tongue and other places with a washcloth. When there was no more ink to be found anywhere that could have created more color in life, Reinhard the Peacebreaker went to the medicine cabinet, which was an act that had been rewarded with a spanking many times before, he bit off a piece of a suppository, which fortunately happened to be a harmless children's medicine and was surprised by the act, once again receiving a slap on the wrist as a reward. There are many interesting places in the kitchen, it is quite fun to play with the dishwasher. Once it happened that the washing powder had not all soaked into the water, but there was white slush on the lid, which the little finger eagerly pushed into his mouth. Apparently it burned his tongue, because he started spitting on the floor with a strange expression, at which point his mother taught him that there are poisons that should not be put in his mouth. Since then, he had learned the new concept of "poison" and raising him is now much easier. He learned to be afraid of poison. Sitting on the potty has become more difficult now, because he has learned to climb out of the playpen, and the knowledge that he can free himself from prison at any time makes him so restless that every couple of minutes he has to be swung back into the pen again.

Only a funny book will entertain him in this activity. He is starting to know a whole bunch of songs and poems, and books and papers are the most interesting objects after cars. Afternoon naps have also become more restless, because he can also escape from his bed. Usually he climbs into Anja's bed first and then onto the floor to play. I usually have to put him to sleep in Anja's bed first, if he can bear to be quiet for a moment the sleep mat will come, and then he can sleep so soundly that today he fell out of bed and then stayed asleep next to the bed without waking up even occasionally. The children received their reports the week before last. Mirja is still among the top three in her class, and will therefore go to school without any obstacles next fall. Anja's report card said that she is a reliable student and good at math, writing and reading. I can't complain about Anja in any way, she does her homework without prompting, and she hasn't forgotten her assignments lately like she did a couple of times at the beginning. She likes to write and sometimes does calculations she's invented on her own. The last math test was satisfactory, and several of the assignments were wrong, but there was a system in place so that the mistakes weren't completely random. She's a reliable student and good at math, writing and reading. I can't complain about Anja in any way, she does her homework without prompting, and she hasn't forgotten her assignments lately like she did a couple of times at the beginning. She likes to write and sometimes does calculations she's invented on her own. The last math test was satisfactory, and several of the assignments were wrong, but there was a system in place so that the mistakes weren't completely random. Sija got a fairly good grade and after I was with the teacher, I was told that the only thing I could complain about was that she's too calm in class. She has a four in mathematics (equivalent to a six in Finland), but how could the poor thing be good at arithmetic, when even her parents don't have a maths head either, we try to do some extra work with her at home, so that she doesn't drop off the wagon at such an early stage. - Yesterday we had a young man from Cologne, whom we recently got to know at the house of acquaintances. I managed to talk him into going on holiday to Finland with his friends and I gave him the addresses of Lasse, Tuulikki, Pekka and Päivi, if you happen to stop by while driving by, don't hesitate. Päivi already knows about the story and also Tuulikki.

Actually, he would be the most interesting guest for Pekka, because he has studied law and spent six months getting to know the local government in the district next to Heinsberg. So if he wants to get to know Finnish local government, of course my dear brother is the best guide. Here are some Christmas photos of the birthday boy at the coffee table, as a kind of representative of us. Of course, we would have much preferred to come as a group and take over about half of the table, but that's not going to happen again. I haven't received the Christmas photos from you so I'll just hope to get them in your next letter. It's been relatively warm for us too. The crocuses in the yard are in full bloom, snowdrops are blooming in other people's gardens, and the buds of the hyacinths and the leaves of the daffodils are visible. It's been really warm and the birds are singing like spring. Reinhard plays in his sand pile every day, albeit with mittens on, but it doesn't seem to bother him. My Christmas roses have developed wonderful red petals, each with two or three groups of flowers, the aluminum paper cone technique has been really good. The development seems to be slowly moving in the direction that we probably won't stay in Heinsberg forever, Jürgen has decided to ask for a transfer anyway and if that doesn't work, then we'll have to look for another place, but since it's been this long. This time the carnival atmosphere is raging in the Rhineland, we've been in two places and the third is on the 22nd. Mirja is busy with her sheriff's outfit and despite all my basically-I'm-against-it attitude, I even bought her a toy gun. I wish you, dear mother, a very fun and happy transition into your new decade,
Liisa your daughter

Golden Mother and Father,

So I would like to thank you for all the parcels and the golden care.

The surprise book package arrived last week. And I had to write and thank for it last Sunday, but then we didn't have enough time when we were first out in the morning and Mirja’s gymnastics show at school in the afternoon.

Mirja is our worm at the gym, so we had to train for the program in the classroom with the girls in honor of the Olympic Committee, and this show was renewed for parents.

Their schools have good gymnastics teachers, and yes, the girls and boys knew how to turn and swing. Silja was watching with me and she really envyed her, but she doesn't have enough enthusiasm to try herself. in the evenings, the three of them do a bit of gymnastics on the soft carpet in the hallway. Reinhard is somehow always behind, even though he can't do more then somersaults. Today, Anja learns the somersault backwards too. Guess that the rumble carries to the flat below us, but it doesn't matter anymore because the neighbors are moving away this week after getting a better place elsewhere. The chemical industry is somewhat in a twist. Production has also been drastically reduced this month. Jürgen is already starting to look for new jobs, although of course there is no reason to be concerned here. It would actually be more pleasant for the family than having a little more time together. Financially, the move will certainly not be as affordable for us as Glanzstoff pays well. He will not be paid more elsewhere, but Saturdays and Sundays must always be practically in the job and the pressure is high. Many men have already died of blood clots, so I wouldn't have the same destiny for Jürgen, rather a lower monthly salary and an easier job. In comparison with Glanzstoff, the position of a civil servant is always safer for the future. At least it is not possible to imagine a wage increase in the next few years, as the industry is more likely to reduce the workforce and consider closing factories rather than setting up new positions and factories. By the way, we replaced our car with a new one before the prices climbed in January. The new one came in last week, Volskwagen still, of course, and Jürgen has been driving it in late in the evenings. I haven't dared to try it yet, even though I can hardly cope without a car anymore. This week, I still had an unfortunate amount of proceedings. I had to go to the dentist twice a week, too, unfortunately I have had periodontosis, the gums have disappeared from one canine. Unfortunately, I can't even improve this, as we’ve heard,it’s a kind of aging phenomenon. I only hope that the treatment will prevent the phenomenon from spreading very quickly to my entire row of teeth. Then there would be a risk of need to get artificial teeth. On Thursday, both parcels arrived at the same time, and the number of sausages was quite dauntingly large, but the children’s delight was limitless and so they have sold like hot cakes. There is one more time left.

Ah, the delight of the feeling of abundance when the delicacies burst out of the package. For the time being, I’ve fixed the sweets in my own hiding place, During Christmas they always are disappearing fast and sometimes it’s nice to share special rewards for small services.

Päivi sent the Ylhäisten bread and a limppu (loaf) and even a little reindeer salted meat. The herrings were offered to guests and made a good deal. You can get salted herring here as well, but Finnish herring filets have different flavors. Hence this wish. I was introduced and thought that sending the herring jar itself would have been easier from the point of view of packaging, otherwise the children will remember the sausages from time to time and also this spring winter and ask when the grandmother will send them again. But I don't always have the courage to beg for everything.

This winter, you have had a lot of trouble with your other notifications. Indeed, when the package was opened, the second question was, are there any problems? I haven't read Poika Tuominen’s book much yet, all the evenings have been taken up by the new car. After all, I always have to sit next to him, and this evening I drove myself too. Maybe it’ll start going again tomorrow.

Then they were guests and yesterday evening there was a concert, tomorrow the theater again. We have season tickets for a theater staging in Heinsberg. Last week, Jürgen was in Arnheim, the Netherlands, for three days and I had to write you a letter in the evening, but when I heard that I was alone, my neighbor’s lady immediately told me to go to the village. A couple of days ago, we experienced that snowstorm this winter. There was a freezing wind and a few degrees below freezing. Today was the most wonderful spring weather, the children put on their knee socks and jumped square. Crocus is still in bloom, Easter lilies are on their buds and rhubarbs have small leaves. The silver willow already has small leaves. It seems to be early spring, everybody is worried about the drought, and there doesn't seem to be any rain coming, the sun is just shining happily. Will be busy with summer clothes, next week Mutti will be celebrating Easter and her 80th birthday with her sister-in-law in Cologne. Tante Hille (pappi's sister, the only living of the siblings) is already at the elderly's home. Aggie should also go to this party and then visit us. I saw Ruohonen’s lady’s death report in the newspaper, but Rauni's name wasn't there at all. Is Rauni already dead? Jürgen is hardly photographed because he usually holds the camera in his hand. Next, I’ll take a separate photo from him for you. Reinhard has eagerly started singing. He can sing well and has a musical ear, and then he finally learns how to drive his tractor (three-wheeler) with the pedals. Until now he just pushed himself forward.
Did I already told you that Silja and Mirja played with instruments together, and Silja also played alone at a small school concert organized for the parents of the music school. It’s already Thursday March 16, and today I my first Easter lilies into the vase. One has not to heat now, when it’s sunny and wonderful.
Today, there was an invoice from the Professor who treats Jürgen and Silja. He 'humbly' charged only DM 500, we get a part of it back from the hospital, and the medicines cost almost DM 300. Would be nice if it helped something when it was so expensive?

Hello and thank you very much
for all of us
Liisa

Hello!

It's almost the spring equinox and the morning light is starting to overcome fatigue, especially when the birds' concert accompanies us. We had a real songbird in our garden for a week, it was a great morning wake-up call and even during the day it sang so hard that I wondered what it was doing for a living. The other day I couldn't hear its sound anymore, it had moved further into the woods. It seemed really quiet in the apartments and I started to look where the musician had disappeared to. I was afraid the cat had taken it, but then I heard the song coming from the treetops when I was getting the car from the garage. I hope it stays.

Actually, it's terribly annoying to write and tell that we didn't manage to get any ferry spots to come to Finland. I contacted the travel agency the day after my mother's birthday and it turned out that on the days we would have wanted to travel, there were no opportunities, and on the return trip, we would have gotten two first-class cabins. On the return trip, there was no cabin at all, but folding chairs for the family's sleeping place, and thus these opportunities were only a few days away, when Jürgen would not have had time to get back to work in time. I was quite shocked, because I thought that we were on time relatively early and there are big ships on the move now, but apparently travel is increasingly directed to and from Finland. So next year we will start ordering seat tickets before Christmas to get to Finland next summer. The whole family was disappointed. Silja cried, but we couldn't really think about a train journey with all its difficulties or a too long car journey through Denmark and Sweden. We then rented a cottage from Denmark and go to the seaside again on the island of South Jutland Fanö. Two weeks ago there was snow and frost here too.

Huge flocks of starlings had already come in hopes of hay and now had to wait for over a week for the snow to melt in somewhat miserable conditions. They had gathered in a wind-protected place in a hollow near the Heinsberg power plant. We went for a walk there and the air was full of the bustle of starlings, the branches of the trees were black with birds. I have never seen so many birds in one place in my life. Now there are already cows in some places in the pasture. And large flocks of sheep wander around in the summer they are not seen, only in the spring. Many sheep have newborn lambs with them. Reinhard is excited and shouts "Baa baa" when a flock of sheep is near us. Pigs and sheep must look the same to him.

Jürgen's mother is in Italy on a three-week healing course. She has osteoarthritis in her knees, i.e., stiffening due to wear and tear. I don't actually believe it can be cured. After all, it's the wear and tear of old age, but in a way, it gives her something to pass the time. Finally, here comes a picture taken in national costume at the beginning of February when Reinhard's godparents were visiting us. One more thing, if you send (it would be nice) "mämmi" for Easter, could there be room for 1 roll of baking paper as well? Thank you!! How has Father been doing lately? Hopefully, still very well.
Best regards,
Liisa family

Heinsberg 18.3.1971

Hei, Hei!

Today, Mirja's birthday, the weather is so beautiful that you can see better outside than inside, because the heating is rarely on.

I heard the first cuckoo's call, although it's only a couple of times, but the beginning of summer is announced that way.

And let's believe it anyway, because of the flowering of the Easter lilies, anemones and primroses. Heartfelt thanks for the Easter package. It was delicious and arrived just on Maundy Thursday, so there weren't even any customs problems. We eat it on both Easter Day and Good Friday, and we saved one portion for this weekend when we had guests. At my request, Päivi sent grilled reindeer roast and lakka, so there were Finnish delicacies available and they were so good. And we were praised a lot. I also added rosolli, or salad, and lingonberry jam, so there were some Finnish national flavors. Today we feasted on the leftovers, and I also made ice cream and cake in Mirja's honor.

Mirja has grown a lot, at least five centimeters taller than Silja. Silja will have to start taking over Mirja's clothes, she won't even fit in the same clothes anymore. Silja still wins in weight, though. Mirja has remained the same runner and jumper as before, she climbs from tree to tree, dances from end to end on every fallen tree trunk she meets on the forest road, and almost beats Jürgen in running, and her feminine forms seem to be starting to develop. Silja is clearly a backwoods girl. Both of them prefer Native American books these days and are keen on horses. Jürgen promised Mirja proper riding lessons as a birthday present. They can go quite fast on ponies. Mirja once fell off a horse, but apparently wasn't scared at all.

Every Sunday there is a big questioning from the children, if they could going horse riding, we asked the children what they want for their birthday. Silja wants a tennis racket, Mirja riding lessons, Anja a memory book. Secondly, Anja wanted her hair to be short, as it would be such a cheap gift. However, I don't think I will agree to that, Anja has such beautiful pigtails.

By the way, you happened to send the wrong pictures back, you can keep these cross marked ones with. Do I have to send Sohvi's picture back? Anja's teeth are loose, the old small ones are being replaced by new and beautiful ones. Reinhard is mainly developing linguistically, as I don't think his weight has increased much since last autumn, but I don't think that means anything, because his appetite is normal and he looks normal otherwise. At night he is sometimes restless, he often wakes up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep.

I let him skip his naps unless he himself wants to go to bed. Sometimes you can tell he's had bad dreams, because he says 'Dog!' when he wakes up. I take him to the dining room sofa so Jürgen can sleep.

This week Jürgen is going to see a professor in Krefeld with Silja. They're trying to get hay fever and asthma treatment before the hay bloom again. Jürgen hasn't really gotten rid of his asthma all winter, even though it was only very mild, so I'm worried that it might get worse over the years. I asked Jürgen to ask about the vaccination carefully, but he thinks that vaccination is just a medical tip.

Has Leena got the job? At forty, she can still get a new job, older people are no longer welcome, and Päivi is also coming to south of Finland again. Could she become the wife of a farmer from Masku? It seems those Lapland boys couldn't get a hold on her. The chairman of the Perniö council died in the middle of his term. Who could be the successor? Will he be re-elected? Will the vice-chairmen automatically become chairman at the end of the election term? The old veterans will then start to leave one by one and the others notice that they are middle-aged and getting more stiff. I have also gained a kilo over the winter and I can't seem to get rid of it, my appetite is always good and you always have to feed the family. Reinhard also eats an egg on Sunday mornings and spoons it into his cheeks in deep silence. This morning I thought to cancel egg, with all the guests and everything, but when Reinhard overheard the word, he asked: 'egg?' and then excitedly: 'egg!' and ran into the kitchen, I had to cook him an egg. He's not dry yet. I guess I haven't been consistent enough in putting him on the potty, and he never really says it, when it's an emergency. I've noticed that the intervals between emergencies have increased. At night he usually cries once and then stays dry when I urgently put him on the potty. As soon as it gets really warm enough, I'll leave the plastic pants off. Everyone says Reinhard looks a lot like me. School starts again tomorrow after a three-week vacation. I guess I have to start working on summer clothes, and I should probably start airing the house already.

I washed the windows and curtains for Easter. This is how life here runs its old track. There was indeed an incident when Aunt Sylvi visited Perniö. But Mutti was bothered when I didn't remembered her at her birthday timely. How does the sewing machine work? Oh yes, thanks for those washing markers, too. The mämmi arrived in first class condition, nothing had leaked or dripped. Jürgen also tells me to thank for it. I wish you a very happy spring. Many bright warm days, when it is good to breathe and birds of gratitude chirping in the yard trees.

With heartfelt thanks,
Liisa

Heinsberg 2.5.71

It's already the sweet time. The woodpeckers, the jays and the swallows sweeten the beautiful spring - Reinhard roars his own less beautiful song, when he's not allowed to type. Only the wind is a little cool from the east, so writing outside isn't a hot job, even though the sun is shining from a cloudless sky. We're all writing a Mother's Day greeting together, Reinhard twists all the buttons he can and pushes so close that he gets his cheek on the typewrite's roller when I get to the end of the line, and then he starts a new song again. After all, you won't get to write much yourself if you give in to your son, even though it's Anja's birthday and the food is ready so all you have to do is heat up yesterday's sauce and cook some spaghetti, so that there's still time. The children have all been a little sick, Silja vomited all Wednesday, she wasn't even at school because of it, on Thursday it was Reinhard's turn, although he wasn't even bedridden, but he had to make sure that the whole bathroom didn't get dirty, and yesterday afternoon Mirja started her turn and at night it was Anja's turn. Today there won't be many guests at the table as Anja and Mirja are only eating tea and rusks. It's nice that there's food ready for tomorrow, maybe then I'll have time to sew a little. Last week was spent buying birthday presents, the children didn't really have any wishes. Mirja expressed everyone's big wish, a kangaroo ball, which is the latest buzz on the toy market. It's a huge ball with a pair of ears for holding on to, so you can jump around like a kangaroo while sitting. It was a pretty expensive gift, I hope it has a lifespan of more than two weeks. Of course, we still had to get them other gifts, clothes and books, otherwise the girls wouldn't have felt like they were having a big party since I simply didn't want to organize children's parties this year, and it was better when they were more or less sick. We had promised to go to the zoo with them instead. But that didn't work out either, because we were celebrating May Day ourselves and it got so late that we couldn't do anything but fall asleep in the afternoon. Next Sunday will probably be a better day anyway, because we'll be celebrating Silja's birthday a little bit then.

The zoo would probably have been packed on May Day, the weather would have been beautiful. We've had a terribly dry time, it's only rained once and nature has been refreshed and green, but now we have to run around the garden every evening with a watering can in hand. (Anja just found a ladybug and counted its spots, "Where is the tiger?" Reinhard asked) Then it was time to eat again. Reinhard wasn't put to sleep at all, but luckily the neighbors are also outside, Reinhard likes the neighbor's uncle, who doesn't seem to have anything against the boy either, even though he doesn't have any children of his own. He probably wouldn't like it so much if he knew that Reinhard always comes to pick buds from their flower beds. Mr. Burger is an avid gardener, there's always something to do, if nothing else, he then changes the location of the flowers throughout the summer so that they don't have time to bloom. The time for spring flowers is almost over, the tulips are just blooming bright red and in baskets, but the daffodils and hyacinths have already bloomed. We've already eaten rhubarb from our own land twice. The spinach is starting to turn four-leafed, but the sparrows are eating it too, unfortunately. All the vegetables are on the seedling stage, in a small The cherry tree that we planted last fall also has two flowers. The cherry and plum trees have bloomed, the apple trees are starting to bloom today. Anja got a dartboard for her birthday, the family is now excited to throw at it, but it's not really about setting records yet, it's good when we hit the board. Silja got a table tennis or ping pong, yes, we practice any sport now. It's wonderful when we have time to be outside a little on Sundays, sometimes it's annoying during the week when it's really beautiful outside and we don't have time to go out at all. Even though it's sometimes almost twenty degrees during the day, it's been freezing at night and so WE'VE STILL HAD TO HEAT IT ALMOST CONSTANTLY.

It was really annoying when we had to order new coals yesterday. Jürgen and Silja went to the doctor in Krefeld. They had been injected with various substances in their backs, and yes, several of them were mildly allergic, but the worst of all, of course, was pollen. Jürgen got a substance called "Intal" for his asthma (when you spray it, you start coughing and mucus comes out, says Jürgen), which he takes in the evenings and it prevents an attack from coming in advance, so that we can now sleep better at night. It was really expensive - the day after tomorrow they will go again to get the injection list extended and in the autumn the professor had promised to start immunisation. This constant dry and warm air does not suit Jürgen, the sea air is humid, and the wind coming from the sea is guaranteed to be pollen-free. (That's why we go to the seaside for a holiday) Last year the holiday was way too late, Jürgen hardly felt the effect on his asthma at all. Next year the children's summer holidays will be very early, it is the most convenient for us, although the weather is still too cool for swimming and tanning, at least in Denmark in June. The climate of the North Sea is harsh but invigorating. But it is finally time to thank you for the letter and also for the girls' letter. We will thank you for the package when it arrives, because it did not arrive before May Day as you suspected. Congratulations to Leena for me, it was really good that she got to Turenki, it must be easier there, since the district is not so devastatingly large and there is more help from doctors. I saw Jukka Vehanen's election from the Perniönseudun Lehti. In the "wheat and chaff" of Suomen Kuvalehti there was a joke quote from the Perniönseudun Lehti "Forssell receives at the hospital hill" on Tuesday. In between, only Reinhard has had time to write. Monday is always a bit of a busy day for us. I have laundry to do in the morning, I have to go to the store and cook, and on the side I have to keep an eye on Reinhard, who has been climbing over the backyard fence on Burger's compost lately. He can climb over a meter high without any compost and fall on top of himself on the other side, but it's okay, as long as he can, those few tears don't mean anything. In the afternoon Silja and Mirja have choir practice and the library is open for the kids, they drag home at least as many books as we did back then, five thick books are in each bag when they come home and both bags are read before they are taken back.

Anja is also starting to read whole books, albeit slowly. Then Silja has to go to the dentist every other Monday to get her teeth straightened. I have to make sure Anja doesn't forget about music school, even though she likes to go there. That evening would have been my gym night, but now I haven't been back since Easter, as Reinhard often started screaming in the evening, and Jürgen couldn't get him to calm down at all. Yesterday I vacuumed everything, and finally ironed the laundry so that it's in the closet this morning. It was nine o'clock in the evening before it was folded and in order, and I still had to knit a couple of buttons and sew the pockets on Jürgen's trousers. But today I'm feeling good, as there's nothing else to do but go shopping, cook and then I get the rest of the time to sew those nightgowns - I still remember what I said about those chickens, does Dad eat chicken yet?? What a pity that we, as owners of the chicken coop, didn't come up with a delicacy of delicacies back then. By the way, about the vernal equinox, yes, it is the same day here too and yes, it is dark here after sunset. In the evening, you don't really notice its length, when the lamps are turned on and the shutters are closed, but in the early hours of the morning, when the light starts to shine through the cracks in the shutters. Fortunately, Ascension Thursday is still a real celebration in the middle of the week for us and no one has said that Pentecost should be taken away, they don't dare to be so radical here in Catholic countries, but for the hostess, such three-day celebrations (although, fortunately, the shops are open on Saturday) are more stressful when the whole family is around all day, and also requires their own share of time sharing. You have to go horse riding with the children and walk with Jürgen, sitting and reading are then only an evening pastime, unless you have taken up writing a letter as a job, I only really have time for that kind of thing on the weekend, it takes up too much time in the middle of the day and in the evening there is only a miserable hour, there is no time to concentrate on a single thought. - Reinhard has been wearing the slippers that Anja got last year as a Christmas present all winter now, he likes them much more than shoes - they are still quite big so that they sometimes fall off, I do like things that fit for a long time. Mirja's shoe size is already 36! Yes, this is a pretty prosaic Mother's Day greeting, I just have to add that even though at my age I don't need my mother so much anymore, it's still nice to receive letters and information and all sorts of handy things, and that's a way to thank my mother, the sweet mother who always bothers to take care of these little things.
Have a great Mother's Day Sunday and a crunch
From Liisa

Heinsberg den 6.5.71
Liebe Mummi!
Vielen Dank für den schönen Wandteppich. Er hängt zwar nicht in unserm Zimmer sondern im Flur,aber dass macht nichts. So haben wir alle etwas davon. Bei uns oben hätte es doch nur Streit gegeben.Und solch ein Wandteppich ist ganz gewiss sehr teuer. Aber im Flur sieht er auch prächtig aus. Heute hatten wir Sport. Dabei habe ich gesagt bekommen,dass ich für die Bundesjugendspiele eine Siegerurkunde bekommen soll. Wann wir sie kriegen ist zweifelhaft. Ich habe Turnen sehr gern. Frau Wunderlich, so heisst unsere Turnlehrerin, bringt uns richtig auf Trab. Deshalb mag ich sie auch so gern. Die Turnlehererinnen, die ich bisher gehabt habe, waren alle so langweilig. Aber meine Freundin Margret mag sie nicht ein bisschen. Sie hat starke Rückenschmerzen, weshalb sie eigentlich ins Krankenhaus müsste. Aber Frau Wunderlich will ihr das nicht glauben, weil sie sich ach sonst gerne vor dem turnen drückt. Jetzt braucht sie sogar ein ärztliches Attest.Ich fahre heute schwimmen. Bei uns ist es nämlich unheimlich heiss für diese Jahreszeit. Am Dienstag musste ich zum zweiten Mal nach Krefeld zum Arzt. Letztes Nal hatte er Gruppenteste gemacht. Diesesmal mal hat er Einzelteste gemacht.Ich bin gegen Gräser,Blumen umd Weizen und Roggen allergisch. Isi ist nur gegen Gräser allergisch. Heute bin ich mit Birgit, Mirja, und Anja zum Schwimmen. Das Wasser war warm. Schwimmen kan ich noch sehr gut. Aber zum springen hatte ich keine Lust. Irgendwie hatte ich Angst,vom 1 m Brett zu springen. Ich habe es nur mom der Leiter aus einmal geschafft. Birgit hat heute das Fahrtenschwimmen gemacht.Ich habe es schon lange. Dagegen übe ich jetzt den Kopfsprung. Ich bezweifle allerdings, dass ich ihn jemals schaffen werde. Mirja kan ihn chon. Aber die hat ja auch in der Schule Schwimmunterricht. Da ist Kopfsprung machen Pflicht. Sie hat es in dieser Hinsicht besser als ich.Aber wenn da die Schwimmhalle fertig ist, die jetzt gebaut wird, Bekommen wir auch von der Schule aus Schwimmunterricht. Aber das dauert noch einige Zeit. Ich lese jetzt sehr viel in den Büchern, die ich zum Geburtstag bekommen habe. Im Augenblick Andschana. Das ist ein Buch aus Indien. Ich habe es von Grossmutti bekommen. Mirja hatte sich einen Hopsball gewünscht.Den bekam sie auch. Aber er war zu klein. Da wollte Äiti ihn umtauschen. Aber das Geschäft hatte keinen grossen mehr vorrätig. Sie wollten ihn aber bestellen. Bis heute haben sie ihn noch nicht bekommen. Wir haben also genauso wenig Hopsbälle wie zuvor.
Viele Grüsse
Deine Silja

Heinsberg, May 6, 1971

Dear Mum!

Thank you so much for the beautiful tapestry. It's not in our room, but in the hallway, but that's okay. That way we all get to enjoy it. It would have just caused arguments upstairs. And a tapestry like that is certainly very expensive. But it looks splendid in the hallway too. Today we had gym class. I was told that I'm supposed to get a certificate for the Federal Youth Games. When we'll get it is uncertain. I really enjoy gymnastics. Mrs. Wunderlich, that's our gym teacher's name, really gets us going. That's why I like her so much. The gym teachers I've had before were all so boring. But my friend Margret doesn't like her at all. She has terrible back pain, which is why she should really go to the hospital. But Mrs. Wunderlich won't believe her because she usually tries to skip gym class anyway. Now she even needs a doctor's note. I'm going swimming today. It's incredibly hot here for this time of year. On Tuesday, I had to go to the doctor in Krefeld for the second time. Last time, he did group tests. This time, he did individual tests. I'm allergic to grasses, flowers, and wheat and rye. Isi is only allergic to grasses. Today, I went swimming with Birgit, Mirja, and Anja. The water was warm. I can still swim very well. But I didn't feel like jumping. Somehow, I was afraid to jump off the 1-meter diving board. I only managed it once from the ladder. Birgit did her distance swimming today. I've had that for a long time. In contrast, I'm now practicing the headfirst dive. I doubt, however, that I'll ever be able to do it. Mirja can already do it. But she also has swimming lessons at school. Doing a headfirst dive is mandatory there. She's better off than me in that respect. But when the swimming pool that's currently being built is finished, we'll also get swimming lessons through the school. But that will take some time. I'm reading a lot of the books I got for my birthday. Right now, I'm reading Andjana. It's a book from India. My grandmother gave it to me. Mirja wanted a bouncy ball. She got one, but it was too small. So Äiti wanted to exchange it, but the shop didn't have a large one in stock. They said they would order one, but they still haven't received it. So we have just as few bouncy balls as before.

Lots of love, Silja

12.5.
Hi Mom!
Sorry I haven't translated Silja's letter earlier. Somehow it had disappeared somewhere, but I found it when I started looking for it. Thanks for the "look" -plastic film. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks amazing. The wall tapestry is really beautiful, so I begged the girl to let me hang it in the hallway for everyone to see, which they graciously agreed to. It's still incredibly hot and dry here, and the kids are going swimming. I sewed those nightgowns last week, and Anja was happy to get her own doll (?) and a princess dress, which touches the ground. Jürgen is on a three-day trip to Bavaria. I've cleaned and aired everyone's beds, and today is the first turn of the wardrobe. Jürgen is still being tested for house dust, otherwise he's only allergic to grass. Jürgen is taking a two-week vacation now. Those candies disappeared in an incredibly short time. I hear Anja and Mirja ate them.

Happy Pentecost
Liisa

Heinsberg. 7.8.71

Hello Mom and Dad

I already owe you an apology for not writing even though the summer vacation has come and gone and you could say that there was time. We did have some writing paper with us, but I only packed five envelopes and I thought that I wouldn't write more than that, but I didn't happen to include the children in my calculations and they wrote to their friends as soon as we arrived in Fanø, so I didn't have any envelopes left and then I didn't bother to go buy any. Actually, I've been waiting for a longer travelogue than that postcard from Stockholm, I just got word from Tuulikki that the trip had gone well, although of course with medication and later in the hospital. I haven't received Leena's address yet, so that would be interesting too, while you grab your pen. Before the trip, of course, there were strawberries and black currants to preserve here. Due to the Glanzstoff strike, our departure was delayed by a few days and we still didn't even wait until it was over, although it soon stopped anyway, and the trade unions didn't really win anything with that strike. At best, about 25% of Glanzstoff's workers were on strike and most of the strikers were foreigners, i.e. half of the total number of foreigners. Due to the southern temperament, quite a commotion was caused, cars were broken into, and a few friends were treated quite badly. Others worked overtime at the same time, and someone very smart had reportedly taken a sick leave for the strike and went to work for another man during the time, so that during the strike there were three types of pay: 1) strike benefit, 2) sick pay and 3) pay for another job. How can someone be smart in such a situation! When it was the first strike in over twenty years, you can't really say that it was a habit. Our trip went very well, we stayed overnight in Hamburg at Mutti's, Mirja slept at Landbeck. The next morning we continued our journey, and arrived in Esbjerg exactly at the time we had estimated, but we had to wait two hours for the ferry to cross. We found the cottage, and as usual we emptied our suitcases, put on our swimming trunks and went to the sea, which was wonderfully warm and calm. The same wonderful weather continued for ten days, but then it got cooler and a little rainy, especially that weekend when Mutti was visiting the cottage she had sent us. Immediately after she left, the weather improved a little, although it was no longer as hot as it had been in the early days.

There were four villages on the island, the one where we were was a cow village as the name suggests, with elegant Frisian houses, which you probably got a postcard sample of and mostly sandy meadows. The cutest was Sønderho, which had been preserved intact as a whole, with its low thatched-roof houses, friendly-looking buildings painted red, white or yellow. There were a lot of summer residents in Fanø, apparently it was the only way for the residents to make a living, because after the sailing fleet lost its importance, not much else had come into its place. Fanø's actual spa, Vesterhavsbgdet, was a fairly deserted place with its large, ugly hotel shacks, where probably not many people lived, the camping areas and summer cottages were full and the beach was bustling with cars on beautiful days, the sandy beach was relatively hard even though it was nice and flat, cars could get right to the water's edge and that had the advantage that you never had to lug your gear long distances. On windy days, everyone went behind the dunes to sunbathe, the sand was soft and flying, the children happily rolled from the crest of the dunes to the valley and the time didn't seem long. Silja was the most diligent swimmer, Mirja was probably still a little afraid of the waves, even though they were much smaller in Fanø than in Løkken or Gallantsoog. Anja only swam the first week, when there were no waves at all, and learned a little, but only a little, how to swim like a dog. Reinhard wasn't particularly afraid of the water, even though he didn't go deep, he was content to play at the water's edge. We went to the mainland twice. The first time we were in Ribe, which is probably one of the oldest towns in Denmark, the church must have been about a thousand years old. It was Romanesque in style and on the outside it was adorned with a square tower, which had been built for defensive purposes sometime in the 12th century. The monastery church was still separate and the city center was medieval in style with small houses and narrow alleys. The Danish Reformer had also made an impact there, whose statue next to the church reminded me of Agricola's statue with exactly the same robes and cap, so I knew right away that it was the Reformer, even though I was not otherwise familiar with Danish history. We drove from Ribe to Løgum to see the monastery church, and on the way we saw a stork's nest with three storks on top of posts. We met them a couple of times later, a strange sight in itself, a nest built on a cart wheel, and long-legged birds with terribly long beaks swaying precariously in the air above. Not at all the usual bird-like grace and light certainty of movement, I was constantly afraid that they would soon fall from there and break their long legs and necks. On another trip we visited Odense, the city of Hans Christian Andersen, which had changed and developed into a bustling factory and trading town since Andersen's days. Andersen's house was packed with tourists from all over the world, and there was a large library where he had collected publications of his fairy tales in different languages, from Greenlandic to Vietnamese and everything in between. The Danes had preserved all the memories of their fairy tale uncle, down to the last ink pen he used, and we were lucky enough to admire his hat and cane and glasses and of course his desk and stately furniture. The children were a little disappointed, though, because at first there were many rooms full of display cases containing nothing but letters and pictures. Reinhard was pushing forward at such a pace that I didn't really want to keep up with him. There we saw all sorts of other bones and royal tombs left behind by Knut the Great in the crypt, or chapel under the choir, of the largest Gothic church in the country.

The island of Fyre and the Jutland peninsula were connected by a handsome suspension bridge, there were magnificent views on both sides, and I thought to myself that it must be dangerous to build a motorway through such a beautiful place, every driver, despite their high speed, is susceptible to temptation, and looks left and right instead of looking ahead. The Danes are not as fast drivers as the Germans, although we did see overtaking in Denmark, so that it took our breath away and we thought we were about to have an accident. On the way back between Fanø and Hamburg we had to drive past three accidents, which had apparently happened just before we arrived, it was the worst part of the journey due to the bad weather and the flood of cars, fortunately nothing happened to us, and we made it home safely. Reinhard is the most interested car traveller, he doesn't fall asleep in the back seat, as the girls always did. In Hamburg we kept a visit to Mutti on the way back that had been planned for the outbound journey. Silja and Mirja then stayed there for 10 days, and last Thursday grandma brought them back home. Anja was able to stay with Aunt Grete in Bonn, and she has now been away from home for a week and should be coming back on Wednesday by train alone. Mrs. Urlass took her to Bonn, because Anja has no routine for traveling by train at all and she had to learn that first. From Bonn she travels on the train to Düren, so we can pick her up at the terminal station and there is no risk that she will travel to who knows where. Hopefully she will not decide to get off the train too early. Reinhard decided to write a line now, so here are some fresh greetings. xxx I had a lot of laundry and new storage work waiting for me at home. A sweaty week, as the weather happened to be warm here, not to say hot. Jürgen's work also started right away. Before grandma came, the windows still had to be washed, and of course there was also one cleaning day. Since then, things have been a bit slow, except that everyone still helped with the apple picking, because our neighbors gave us the rest of the big harvest of these white beautiful Fruits and they had to be preserved. I was also able to collect a bucket of cherries from another neighbor's cherry tree, which we don't have yet, as we only planted a new tree in the yard last fall, and it only had three cherries this year, and those had disappeared into who knows who's mouth during our trip. It's just quite dry, sometimes there's a small thunderstorm, but there haven't been any, except for a couple of strong gusts of wind that shake down our few apples. Last year was a record harvest, this year there are nothing on some trees at all. Two of the pear trees don't have a single one, while the third small tree has an unusually large number hanging down this year.

There are plenty of plums this year, and the first big juicy ones are just getting ready. Unfortunately, there are worms in them, but the worms always fall down first. The carrots are beautiful, and this year we will have our best ever harvest of leeks, but so I started growing them on the windowsill in March. Reinhard was allowed to run around without pants most of the time in Fanø, and here at home I only wore panties without a diaper (which Jürgen resented, because in the middle of cooking he once lifted a big group when a puddle came onto the chair and of course some also went under the chair onto that new rug). Now he has learned to go to the toilet himself and even though it is far from certain (especially the poop wants to come without warning), we live in hope that the boy will learn to be a neat person before his third birthday. So Lasse and Onerva bought themselves their own house, as Onerva said. And dad has already looked for a place for a well. How much did it cost? I would only be interested in it for our own investment, because a summer cottage plot like that by the sea, especially in Parainen, would of course be an investment in itself. Pekka and Arja are also said to be in the process of buying a house, has it developed to the point of purchase? After all, they are becoming inhabitants of Hamina. Here is a picture of grandma with our children taken in Hamburg on a trip. I have to stop this time, because I get a letter in the mail, because I guess there are no more stories to tell here. We are healthy, except for Jürgen's asthma. I sincerely hope that the professor can do something with the immunization next winter. That sea air didn't seem to help at all this time, maybe we should spend a lot longer at sea, so that we would notice some results over time. Best wishes to all the summer vacationers who stop by Perniö, I hope we will also be part of that group next summer.
Hello, hello, warmest regards
Liisa, Jürgen, and the children
and Hertha Lenz (visiting until Thursday)

Hei!

The golden red October with its summer warmth and wonderful blue sky almost makes one forget the whole autumn. Maybe it's the same in Finland, I wonder sometimes, but I guess it's not? Sometimes it's cold in the mornings, even a couple of nights with frost, but since the fifth of September (when Jürgen got a barometer from his family for his birthday) the weather hasn't really changed much, just high pressure. It's really stupid to heat when the temperature during the day rises to + 20 degrees, but at night it's cooler and sometimes the morning fog stays up until midday. We've lived this normal life here. We turned 38, but it doesn't feel like we've aged at that moment. I got a kitchen fan above the stove to remove the fumes as a birthday present. I bought a new hallway rug, the kitchen door can no longer be closed and all the food fumes were in every room through the hallway. If and when the children demand pancakes for dinner (they always demand that), the kitchen floor is also slippery with grease. Of course, the fan also has its drawbacks. It rattles so much that you can't listen to the radio at the same time. Of course, the children are all at school. Mirja's start at school reminds Silja of last autumn in that her math grades also dropped to the basement, even lower than Silja's. They had four straight exams and the usual scores (on a grading scale of 1-6) were 4,5,5 and 2, so there has been some noticeable improvement, but only after I did work hard with her. Otherwise, Mirja is adjusting well to her new school, she knows she is at the top of the class in gymnastics, and she even managed to get an honorable mention in one of the competitions. Drawing is her second favorite subject and music is her third, so we know how seriously Mirja takes her studies. Silja's favorite subject is history these days, although she also loves exercise so much that when she's sick, all she's sad about is that her exercise class is wasted. Otherwise she never was sick. She's only had a fever a couple of times in the afternoon, which has improved without medication or doctors. The last time she got it was just before Jürgen and I went to Hamburg. Our neighbor Dr. Schneider's family (he's a doctor at the hospital) had promised to take 3 of our schoolchildren in for two days of full-boarding, but they seemed hesitant to take them when one child had a 39-degree fever. Luckily, it was gone the next day and besides, Mrs. Urlass took Silja into her care, because it seemed like Silja's fever could also be from fear. (Schneider has a Boxer dog) Of course, all the children wanted us to travel, it's so nice to live with the neighbors, especially when all the neighbors have a television set.

Our trip happened to be in the middle of the week and the children could not be taken out of school, the following week the autumn holidays started, but Reinhard was with us in Hamburg. The car journey took a little longer than usual, 5 hours, because on the way to Hamburg the Belgian army and on the way back the Army of Netherlands seemed to have taken over the Autobahn (sorry: motorway), but Reinhard enjoyed the ride, he doesn't even sleep in the car like the girls usually did. The reason for our trip was to meet some of Jürgen's classmates, so not so much an official event, but really nice, because the company was nice and the program was completely new to us - we visited a factory on the Elbe outside Hamburg. We were shown around the factory, the production was explained from start to finish, we were offered a good dinner and we were also driven to see other sights. Mutti took care of the boy. Luckily Reinhard was kind to his grandmother, even though he didn't really seem to listen to her. After we returned from Hamburg, the same evening there was the annual autumn dance of the Anglo-German club, for which me, Jane Doe, had finally sewn her first evening dress. We thought we made a great couple: Jürgen had a jacket inherited from his father, which the tailor, and after the tailor me, had managed to fit onto him. I made my evening dress from dark green velvet, quite simple, and it was cheap, as the fabric only cost 70 DM and there is enough left over fabric, so that Mirja could make herself a Sunday dress. Mirja is tall, thin and has short hair. She plays most and most with Ullrich Schneider, who is in her class. (the neighbor's son) Last week Mirja had her first secret admirer throw a letter over the fence, in which the signatory XY 102 confessed that he liked Mirja very much, but that he was just too shy. Ulrich didn't like XY that much, so Ullrich tore up the letter up after reading it.

Mirja later retrieved the pieces of the letter from the trash can, and we glued it back together together. Mirja knew who XY was, because a couple of boys in Silja's class had passed by on cycles several times that day - Silja was playing piano in Mönchengladbach on Saturday with a few other students of the same teacher. It was apparently a joint student performance organized by the music teachers, because Silja said that the hall was full of toxic-looking aunties. The students weren't even applauded, so the event was less fun. Although Silja didn't practice much for nothing. (That is: not at all). Silja is still a regrettably reluctant player, even though the music teacher at school had told Mirja that she deserved the best grade in music. So it must have been a good influence on Silja that the music teacher had promised Mirja the best grade too. At least Mirja has suddenly started playing the flute enthusiastically this autumn. Shee can practice for a whole hour without being ordered so, after which the listeners' ears are already ringing in the same step. Our next summer trip to Finland is set. We have ordered boat tickets for around July 6th and will return at the beginning of August. (The boat's schedule is not yet known, so we don't know the exact date) July 15-29 we will be in Kuusamo, where we have a cottage booked in Sossonniemi. The rest of the time we will be wherever the family wants, either in Perniö or on a round trip from one place to another. Since everyone is so close now, it shouldn't be impossible. Then we will see what new things have happened in Perniö. By the way, we already got the housing savings and decided to take out a Helsinki loan on one side, maybe then we will buy a plot of land in Finland on the other side. Then we are curious for new information again and Leena's address. Greetings especially to Päivi and Tuulikki, I will try to answer their letters soon. Silja and Jürgen have started their vaccination cure. And that's about all the news again. Warm greetings from all of us. Very good health and beautiful autumn days to both of you,
Dear father and mother,
Liisa

Hello! Heinsberg 9.1.72

Happy continuation of the year! The mild weather of the snowless "winter" continues here still. Not once has it snowed so that the ground would have been white. Hopefully, you have a bit more of a feeling of winter. Christmas then passed, we had a tree up until Epiphany for once. We got a rarely beautiful tree and fresh so that the pine needles are not scattered everywhere. When thrown out the window (the most convenient way in terms of avoiding pine needle scattering) it immediately went into Anja's treatment, it was decorated again with cotton balls and candle stubs. You have already heard about the children's game aspects related to our Christmas celebration. I would still like to thank you for Reinhard's and Anja's gifts and Fazer's always delicious candies, which always disappear from the box in a mysteriously quick way. Thanks also in advance for the promised quilt.

Päivi, if I remember correctly, got just the same artist's wall hanging as a farewell gift from Rovaniemi, which she was really proud of. We moved our "loimuava Laavu" wall carpet to the living room, where it currently fits better in terms of its colors than to the hallway, where we put the dark red-black wall carpet from the dining room. This year too, I got over-deserved gifts from J.- Santa, a gold watch, silver dressing table accessories: a chamber brush, a hand mirror, and a clothes brush and in addition a grill and French perfume. We tried the grill yesterday and today it was out of order, but Jürgen was able to repair it, and the sausages and chicken just taste good. From a cooking point of view, it is a convenient and easy device, but the cleaning afterwards does take time, as greasy spray is hard to remove.

I got Solzhenitsyn's "Cancer Ward" from Mutti, very good, although I have only read the first part. What books did you choose? Did they happen to be to your liking? Were you at home with Päivi or at Lasse and Onerva's? Before Christmas I indeed got mail from everyone. Now I probably won't hear anything from anyone for a long time. Arja sent a nice "Christmas card", there was a picture of their house as well.

A beautiful portrait of Sohvi was taken in a flowerpot but the quality is uniquely well succeeded. Now Lasse has managed to immortalize his shape, Sohvi is at least more like Lasse than Onerva. Johanna on the other hand seems to have more traits of Onerva. Someone said that Sohvi is shaped like the grandmother from Perniö and has a way of moving just in the same way. We also took pictures as usual at Christmas but they are not ready yet.

The girls got games for Christmas and on New Year's. We played with them until midnight, and today in the afternoon, we put cards on the table again. We must try to compensate for the lack of TV, which generally causes a lot of complaining. How much do you watch TV? We are almost the only ones without television. Reinhard will again have a hard time next week when the girls go to school. In the absence of company, he clings to the hem of my skirt. The boy has already been without a diaper for a few days, but yesterday there was an accident on the carpet (I didn't dare tell Jürgen).

So, when he reaches the age of three, he has learned to express his needs. This is quite a thin letter, but right now there isn't much to tell. First on Saturday, Silja's former classmate's family is coming to visit. Silja is weaving on hand looms for my coffee set, the second coffee pot hat. Silja is good at crafting. She gets results, but she has no imagination. Mom got another pot holder for Christmas, and for me, she made a cross-stitch cloth for the bread basket (but one has to help her all the time).

Have a good continuation of winter,
Best regards,
Liisa

Hello! Heinsberg, 26.1.72

Thank you for the letters and notifications. Upon reviewing them, this attached notification seems quite nice, but how can we get in touch with this company that does not put their address in the notice? However, it would be terribly nice if you could find out a) is it still available? b) Is it on an island or is a boat needed to get there? c) Of course also, what would it cost. We drove once in the summer in Hiitinen. And we came to the "end of the road". It would be ideally close to Perniö and if you see the place and it feels beautiful to you, and the price is reasonable, then please buy it or let me know, then I will conduct further negotiations myself. Thank you and again, thank you and a kiss on both cheeks for bringing the Kuvalehti and Perniönseudun Lehti again. They both are at least read from cover to cover, especially since we hardly get any other mail, except for the Radio Listener, which at least has to be ordered.

Time here then for handicrafts and bedtime. Last week, I sewed Jürgen a sea captain's costume for carnivals, as the time is at hand again, and the Cossack's residence begins to be monotonous. It turned out to be a really operetta-like radiant uniform. I made it according to the model of a real men's jacket, and it doesn't fit badly at all, even though I say so myself. By the way, we've been on the go since the Saturday before last. We had guests for ourselves first and in the evening we were in Erkelenz in an environment unusual for us celebrating. The father of one of our acquaintances belongs to the old gentlemen of the Catholic student union and once a year a party is set up.

Well, there was an opportunity to put on an evening dress even though we cursed in our minds as we had to redeem the entrance ticket (fortunately Jürgen had brought money with him, after receiving the invitation card we didn't realize that it still had to be paid before you can get in) Gradually I have learned to dance without dance courses. To tell the truth, the most difficult thing is always to get used to the cavalier's dance style, each one shuffles in his style. Last Saturday we were supposed to be visiting near Düsseldorf. Heinsberg was covered in fog all day and it worsened in the evening. We left already at half-past six when we suspected that at least twice the time would be needed compared to the normal, we didn't get further than the neighboring village when we already got lost and in the dark, as the driving speed was about 20 km/h. We turned back and now we will go the next day. Anyone would be crazy to risk themselves just for the sake of visiting. The next day it was slippery and beautiful, although the sudden cold made the roads a bit dangerous.

Our rhubarb is starting to grow in the garden, it's been so warm. Daffodils are also peeking out, many of the garden flowers are blooming, and the weather changes every other day. It was cold enough last week for the puddles to freeze. The children get their interim reports on Friday, and Saturday is a holiday. Our Christmas pictures have somehow disappeared into the darkness of the laboratory, hence I cannot send you a sight of our family's current appearance.

Warm regards,
Liisa

Heinsberg, February 17, 1972
Hello!
Our best wishes to our 71-year-old mother. We wish you good health, happiness, and all the best for the whole year. I received two photos of you taken at Christmas in Päivi's letter. They turned out very well. I felt as if I had you here for once. Jürgen put them in frames so that the impression would last longer. Otherwise, we have of course been enjoying the carnival atmosphere, especially as the last few days are usually very festive. On Thursday, I was at Mrs. Thönissen's mother's house for the women's carnival, where the women dress up as ugly old women with horrible masks on their faces. There were 18 women there, and the first hour was spent dancing, sweat pouring from our faces, because the masks are terribly tight. If you wanted to have a drink, you had to go in front of the mirror to put a straw in your mouth, then we took off our masks and drank coffee. I have never seen such a coffee table in my life, with 15 different cakes, and the tables were decorated with serpentines, popping candies, and small gifts. I got a migraine from that mask, and I couldn't see well the whole time I was drinking coffee, but then it passed. It was really nice there. I talked to an Austrian lady who had married an older German man later in life. She wasn't very happy in a foreign country, and it's also harder for childless people to connect with their surroundings. At around seven o'clock, the gentlemen came to take their wives home, but that didn't mean we were leaving. Now the dancing began, and then dinner was served: soup, sandwiches, and salad. Two female guests helped with the serving, but Mrs. Koch had prepared all the cakes and food herself. She is no longer young; her husband is a former coal mine manager who has been retired for several years. On Friday, I was invited to another coffee party, where fortunately I didn't have to dress up. On Monday, we were at the home of Glanzstoff's chief engineer for carnival celebrations; we were there last year on Shrove Monday as well.


Jürgen was a bit sick under the weather on Sunday, with a fever and stomach ache, but on Monday he was already at work, and stayed there until evening like everyone else, arriving home at around half past three. Silja, Mirja, and Anja were busy with their own activities at the children's carnival. Anja went once, Silja twice, and Mirja three times, as two of her classmates happened to have their birthdays at this time. Anja also worked hard collecting candy in the carnival parades. Just for fun, I weighed her bag: 2.5 kg of candy from two days of going around! Our neighbors were still celebrating yesterday evening, even though the carnival ends at midnight on Tuesday. The carnival atmosphere is mainly created by loud music and, in most cases, copious amounts of alcohol. Of course, masks and costumes also add to the atmosphere, But in fact, carnivals for civilized people are pretty much the same as any other kind of party. People talk about ordinary things in a normal voice, unless the music is so loud that you have to shout to be heard. Carnival music is quite unique, usually songs with funny lyrics, lots of waltzes, and everyone sings along, except me, of course, as I don't know the words and can't sing anyway. Silja caught the flu yesterday, and I have a terrible cold. Snowdrops are blooming in the garden, and crocuses are already blooming on the neighbor's side. I planted the first seeds on the windowsill to grow, and I put parsley in a flower pot. We still have some leeks and green cabbage outside, and there are carrots in the cellar. Many thanks for the letters and new notices. Of course, it would be somewhat snobbish to live on the same island as Kekkonen, according to the rumors, but if you don't let such thoughts get to you, just remember that we have no seafaring skills whatsoever. Four children in a boat that naturally breaks down in the middle of the sea and parents who don't know what to do except row to the nearest shore. I would be terribly afraid myself in rough seas. No, unfortunately, it won't work unless the island has a public transport system such as a ferry that runs in all weathers.

How can you build a house there if everything has to be transported by boat? The island is too difficult for us when everything has to be managed remotely like this. The best offer so far is my father's information about the beachfront property in Särkisalo. we would take two adjacent plots, and try to be the first to choose, from the mainland side, of course. The very affordable offer from Hanko was interesting, but I'm afraid there's a catch. It probably doesn't have its own beach, but rather "beach rights" to who knows where, and isn't that where they built their gunpowder factory in Täktom? When Dad starts building the facilities, I have an A-order for the first piece. I really want it, no matter what it costs, so please take note of this order. Silja and Mirja were very excited about the possibility of getting new rugs for their rooms, as neither of them has a soft rug in front of their beds. Mom, I have one more request. We are having guests on March 11, and we usually try to serve something Finnish. Could you send us a couple of jars of good herring? I will definitely pay you back in the summer. I must end my letter here, even though I still have things to say, because Reinhard won't keep quiet for a moment longer. He's nagging me to go out and saying that I should be ready right away. Greetings also from the letters. I will try to write a letter myself in the near future, even though I am lazy about writing these days.
With warmest regards
Liisa

Heinsberg, 9.4.72

Heissulivei!
Warmest thanks for the delicious mämmi package. It took a while to get it from the mail and we didn't get it until the Wednesday after Easter, but as a consolation to all of us involved, it was in perfect condition despite its long journey and here we are six people, thanking each one with a kiss on both cheeks in our thoughts, the entire Lenz family. Actually, there are eight "thank you"s, because this time Mutti and Aggie, who were guests, also got their share of the package, and Mutti wasn't the worst mämmi eater, because she already knew it. Reinhard had just completely forgotten last year's mämmi and didn't intend to take a spoonful at first, but after seeing how enthusiastically the others ate it, he dared to try it anyway and after the first spoonful he was also a fan of mämmi. Like Mirja and me, he is a real lover of desserts. Jürgen and Silja are a different species, Anja is somewhere in between, but she is more of a dessert lover. Anja's stomach can stretch out to an unlimited extent when needed, and can fit both a starter and a dessert in there, if she likes it, incredibly. If necessary, she will fast, especially if there is black pudding or roast meat, which she can hardly get down her throat at all. Yesterday Mutti left for Hamburg after a two-week visit. She brought rain when she came and took it away when she went. The beautiful weather ended just as she stepped off the train. During her entire stay here, there was not a single beautiful day, rain showers followed each other, storms, thunder, hail, all for exactly two weeks. Not a single drop has fallen today, although it is not 100% beautiful now. But the rain was welcome to us and nature is now turning green beautifully, the birches are in full bloom, the daffodils are shining yellow in the garden and the grass is growing at a speed that does not at all fit in with the fact that our lawnmower retired to its old age last autumn. The children had fun having their grandmother with her large collection of toys to cheer up their bad holiday weather. Silja and Mirja studied solitaire, Anja played mill and halma and I occasionally played a crossword puzzle. Only Jürgen had little time, as he has two presentations to give at the beginning of May and his time was taken up with them.

Mutti works as an assistant to her son-in-law at the university hospital in Hamburg and it has done her a lot of good. After her husband's death she was somewhat nervous, but now she seems to be doing quite well again and her mental balance is much better than it was a year ago in the summer. Even though the Aggie family lives just around the corner, she was still too lonely at home and work diverts her thoughts from her sadness. It was difficult for her to go to work and thus lose some of the freedom she was used to as a housewife, but on the other hand she does get paid so little for her work (she wanted it to be that way) that she can travel as she pleases from time to time. - Glanzstoff announced this week that four of its most unproductive factories will be closed within the year. Oberbruch will only suffer indirectly from these measures (i.e. in the sense that the oldest employees are also being placed here, because of course they cannot be dismissed after decades of service). Jürgen has already applied for a new position, as a young man (relatively young) he still has a chance of getting a position elsewhere, although Glanzstoff probably doesn't want to lose people like him. It is possible that this will also have an impact on our acquisition of a summer position in Finland, so far I can't say anything about that. At least we are preparing ourselves mentally for the possibility that the salary will drop to a third, in a government position there would be no need to save on that, because at least the pension would be secure. - I received a long letter from Tuuliki from Lapland. Apparently we will meet in Kuusamo, because they intend to go on a "Karhunkierros" tour. We are already starting to look forward to summer here. Today we saw the first snowstorm. The children's school starts again tomorrow after a three-week holiday, we have to start studying for the final exams, fortunately the last math exams went relatively well from both, or all three. There is room for improvement in Anja's writing skills. While Mutti was here, I had Mirja sew a summer jacket. Mutti bought Silja a poplar one, which is also fashionable. It was difficult to sew, as I only got the adult model, and it was way too big anyway. Today the cherry and plum trees are starting to bloom at their most beautiful, the other day they were all still in bud when I took a branch from the yard tree to take to Cologne. So the family was together for Aunt Hille's birthday, a very nice, homely warm atmosphere, and not too many guests, only 15 people in total. Anja and Reinhard were in Heinsberg and Aggie then came to visit us for a day. Mutti had actually ordered her to be her travel companion.


Reinhard was very close to Aunt Aggie, spent most of his time sitting on her lap and kissing her on the cheek, Mutti was really jealous. Reinhard apparently thinks that a new aunt is nicer than the same old faces. Although Mutti didn't really have any reason to be jealous, because before she came Reinhard asked a hundred times a day when Mutti was coming and when the doorbell rang he would immediately run to the door and fuss that Mutti was coming, for the first two days he was also in Mutti's bed in the mornings, for some reason the feelings then cooled down, maybe it was because Mutti mainly played with the older ones. Reinhard received a train dispatcher's cap, whistle, bag and stick as a gift. On Sunday we went to Heinsberg station, Reinhard whistled and gave the starting signals, but then complained in disappointment that the trains didn't leave from there. The return home was a real disappointment, the boy wailed at the top of his lungs: "That station is too small, we have to drive to a bigger station to send the train." Because his disappointment was amusing and heart-warming at the same time, the next day we drove to Geilenkirchen, where trains run even on Sundays. Reinhard settled in and I waited next to him with a camera in hand, but when the train rolled into the station, Reinhard would anxiously retreat back, and there was no way he could get him to come any closer so that the train and the boy would fit in the same picture. As the train left, a friendly gentleman shouted from the train window: "Raise your flag, boy, and whistle." I guess that encouraged him so much that when the next train came (it stopped on a more distant track) he dared to come closer enough to get a picture taken. I almost forgot to thank you for the coffee packet. The taste is different from what we are used to here. I really stopped to taste it and it felt homely. I usually use a big bean Mexican-Maragyo blend, it's a little milder roasted than the ones here, which tend to taste strong. You asked about Jürgen and Silja's injections. Actually, I think they've only had a negative effect so far. Jürgen has more asthma and Silja also had an asthma attack after the last injection, even though she doesn't have it otherwise. The final result shouldn't be visible until the summer, when the pollen is flying. If Silja doesn't get her usual hay fever, then it's helped. Otherwise, I've heard that it wouldn't help until a couple of years. Now I'll probably have to stop. Here are a couple of pictures of the last shots, face to face in a couple of months! Warm regards and thanks
Liisa

Silja's letter:
I am sending you happy Easter greetings from Heinsberg. I hope you have a beautiful Easter. I am already happy about Easter. Will you send us some this year too? My family and I would be very happy about that. It is already part of Easter. We have bad weather here today. It has been raining for quite some time. All in all, we have real April weather here in April. It can rain, snow, hail and the sun shine on the same day. Otherwise, we always had beautiful weather during the Easter holidays. We can run around in knee-high socks. Now we have to dress as if it is the deepest winter. I can't stand tights at all anymore. I am currently knitting a sweater for myself. The front piece is already finished. In reality, the pattern I chose for myself is a two-piece suit. It consists of a skirt and a blouse together. They are partly striped. I am currently knitting the back piece. I was sick for a couple of days. I got infected by Reinhard. The whole family was sick. Reinhard brought the illness with him from kindergarten. It eventually spread to the whole family. I got it pretty badly. For days I didn't feel well, didn't want to eat or anything. Finally, my father thought I was just pretending to be sick and was playing sick to get rid of my obligatory skis. But I don't stay in bed voluntarily. When I go to bed, I'm really sick. I'm not allowed to read in bed. I'm up again yesterday and today. I have to practice math even on vacation. I'm pretty bad at it. I now have an English pen pal. I got his address from school. The mail to England takes a long time. That's why I rarely get letters. Now I'm happy that my birthday is approaching. I already know one wish for my birthday. Best regards
Silja

Easter greetings from your own granddaughter too. The cold and chilly weather has really been a pain in April. Today is the first slightly warmer day. I was outside starting the flower beds, Jürgen sprayed the grape bushes and tried to get through the grass in the neighbor's garden with the lawnmower, but it's somewhat hopeless with the moles digging their way up and down and besides, the lawns are growing incomparably moss here in this humid climate. Reinhard is sick again. This time he suddenly got a high fever, I didn't even have a car with me, because Jürgen had taken a car to Glanzstoff in the rain for a change, the boy was already feeling quite apathetic and the doctor refused to come for a home visit, so I had to call Jürgen home in the middle of the working day. After a couple of hours the fever went down and the boy was all perky and happy again and was eating and drinking as if he hadn't been sick at all. Then one day he was completely normal and today in the middle of the day he said: I'm sick again and went to sleep. When he woke up he had a fever of 39.5 degrees again. It's like malaria, but at least there aren't even mosquitoes around at this time of year, so it must be some other illness. That was on Thursday. That same day we received news that we would get the government loan anyway and that we would probably have to go to Neumünster again next week. So we will spend half of Easter in Hamburg, because the children are on holiday. However, Jürgen has an on-call shift on Easter Monday, so we will go home again on Sunday. Otherwise, the week has been marked by the children's holiday, every day we had to find something to do for them, because we couldn't be outside at all.


The silverware was polished with these circumstances, (the bad weather). And once they even baked cookies. Baking is always a fun activity for all of them. I finished sewing Mirja's jacket and of course I also screwed myself by sewing the buttonholes on the men's side. Luckily it's a double-breasted jacket and I sewed them the same way wherever there are buttonholes. I then also sewed them on the right side. What can I blame myself for, when I'm not as eperienced as my mother yet. Anja also does math exercises during the whole holiday. Every day I prepare 14 examples of different calculation methods for her and check the results. Her calculation tests are not genius-like, especially the text examples are difficult as they seem. - And about that loan. It will make finances so much easier that maybe we'll be able to build a cottage in Särkisalo next (not yet this) summer. And how long will it take to get a building permit? Lasse had some models of summer cottage log buildings from a shop called Honkavienti in Turku and I'm going to write to them and ask for more offers. Maybe they'll also give me drawings for applying for a building permit. Could Dad still do that as a side job? A very happy Easter to both of you (all of you)

Best wishes
Liisa + family

Heinsberg, 22.4.72
Mirja's letter: 9.4.72
Dear Grandma, dear Grandpa!
We all thank you very much for the cake you sent us. It tasted very good (as always!) How are you? - Grossmutti left for Hamburg yesterday. She stayed with us for two weeks. Aunt Aggie, who visited us for one day, travelled with her. For Easter, Grossmutti gave me a bouncy ball. It's very nice. It has got written Pon-Pon on it (see picture). Silja got a summer jacket and Anja a pencil case. - Today I had to play the flute in church for the Catholic confirmation children. The church was freezing cold. The weather is not too bad, so-and-so. It rained almost continuously for two weeks.
19.4.
Oh yes, I forgot to write that Silja and I got long trousers from Grossmutti. (they are advance birthday presents) A thousand thanks for the wonderful patchwork rugs. They contrast nicely with our dark furniture. Their smell reminds me of the smell of your house. I am already happy about the summer holidays, when we will come to your place. Today I played tennis with Silja for the first time. It went quite well. I received solitaire cards as a birthday present from Grossmutti and a belt from Aunt Aggie that goes well with trousers and a short-sleeved blouse. Dad and mom gave me a wonderful present - a bicycle. A beautiful new bicycle. I can ride it very well.
Many, many greetings
from your loving grandchild
Mirja
Mum and dad, darlings!
Here is Mirja's letter in all its unadorned brevity. She's not exactly a letter writer, either she doesn't know what to write, or someone will come to pick her up at that very moment to play outside, and she won't even say no, because then the letter wouldn't come to anything if she scribbled it down. I always feel like writing side notes, for example, that their furniture isn't dark at all, but the room is dark and that's why those cheerful patchwork rugs brighten up the atmosphere considerably instead of the old red rug, which also always has a darkening effect in a dark room. Anja is aware that a third of the rugs belong to her, we just don't want to cut them into smaller pieces because they fit so well in length.

By the way, the carpet roll arrived just on Mirja's birthday (it's April 18th). Last year we didn't celebrate any birthdays at all, partly because I was upset that our neighbour Birgit didn't invite our girls to her birthday party, and in retaliation we didn't want to invite her either, on the other hand I don't like this kind of petty argument between neighbours, and I said that then we shouldn't celebrate at all, that we shouldn't let any little things escalate into mutual ill will. Secondly, Silja didn't have many new friends among her classmates that she would have wanted to invite, and thirdly, I guess I didn't have much desire to organize invitations either. This year we have to celebrate everyone's birthday separately, because everyone has a whole bunch of birthday invitations behind them, which of course have to be answered with an invitation. Then they're also each in their own circle of friends and the group would swell so much that it wouldn't even fit in the rooms, and who's to say that the weather will be favorable for outdoor games. Mirja alone has a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, there were 10 of them in total. We drew up a play list in advance and the girls got to take care of the guests without me, who was busy in the kitchen, making hot chocolate, clearing the cups from the table, washing the dishes, putting out juice, carrying cookies, serving ice cream and washing the dishes again. In the evening we were at the theatre, there happened to be a play called "Birthday Invitation". The happy bustle of the children's party was still in my eyes and ears, I was expecting a comedy, but it was a modern, dark story, which one could only guess what it really meant. If Jürgen hadn't skimped on the program, we wouldn't have gotten to the bottom of the whole thing. I started the sima today. Today is Saturday. Miserable April beats all of March in terms of cold, there's no hope that we could stop heating, except that the cokes are almost gone and I don't feel like ordering more. This week it was twice below freezing and the fuchsias I had already taken outside took it badly and were partially frozen. Oddly enough, the geraniums did not suffer visibly. Otherwise they would be really beautiful, but when the sun does not appear here either, it is not really enjoyed. The bees are so stiff that they do not come to pollinate either. It seems that it will be a gloomy fruit year. - The girls joyfully accepted the news that they will be able to weave their own carpet in the summer. So please put the rugs on your loom so that their enthusiasm does not fade while waiting. In other words, they will not give the blessed peace until they get to weave for the loom. Silja is at least a hardworking craftswoman, and she has the best possible number in the school to prove it. That left Saturday's letter standing. Since yesterday the weather was beautiful, we went for a walk and then I was working in the garden. I had been waiting for beautiful weather all week, if it only comes on Sunday then there is nothing I can do about it when I feel like sowing. On our side, everything is already planted and in the works, but on the neighbour's side, weeds are rampant, and if no one comes to live there now, I'll use that side to my advantage.
Best regards, until next time!
Liisa

Happy Mother's Day!

A heartfelt greeting for Mother's Day, rainy and gray, and it falls on us. Still, Jürgen and I were picking lilies of the valley. The first ones were open, or most of them were just budding on the Dutch side. There seemed to be a lot more of them. We were on the border, after all, and we were looking across. The border is a small stream, too wide to jump over, but shallow enough to wade across. Since it was Mother's Day, Jürgen took off his shoes and socks and waded across to the other side, where he gathered a big bouquet.

Jumping over the border is not even prohibited here, because on both sides of the border there are so-called recreational areas that both peoples use. There are neither barriers nor a border line, as it is difficult to know which country you are in at any given time. Of course, you have customs and customs officers, and even if you are lucky enough to cross the border without a passport, those without a passport will still be sent back if they are caught in a random check. (This happened to us once with Mutti and Pappi) We crossed, or rather tried to cross, the border, and they did not have their oassports with them. The beginning of May was beautiful again after the chilly April, but we have had almost enough rain this week. Of course, it is good for nature, everything grows in the garden so that you can see it. Silja likes spinach and once had her treat, which she especially likes on pancakes. Mirja, Reinhard and I are not so big fans of spinach. We can eat one spinach pancake somehow, but Reinhard got already nervous when I served another one with that green garbage on it. Reinhard has a sweet tooth. Our Mother's Day was not without humorous aspects, I kept urging Anja to finish knitting potholders by Mother's Day. Of course, nothing came of it, crafts don't excite her, even though she can knit properly. So she tried to find a shortcut and boasted that she had something completely different and that I could have coffee in bed in the second place. Very early, there were noises coming from the children's room and when Jürgen got up to go to the basement to warm up (it's so cold that we let the stove heat the radiators again for a change, as it is May), Anja appeared in the doorway with a large package in her hand. I was surprised, but the secret turned out to be Anja's property: the contents of her jewelry box and a folder with stationery paper, which she apparently considered to be her more valuable possession. Then it was difficult to reject this generous bribery, even though I tried to do it carefully, Anja was terribly offended, crawled under her covers and rejected all attempts at reconciliation. She soon forgot about the incident when she was left alone for a while. Then we waited for our turn for the coffee to appear. The children had been up for a while and my stomach was starting to rumble. When I dared to show up and ask about the coffee news, I was surprised to hear that I could get coffee if I started getting up. So nothing helped but going to the bathroom and get dressed. Also the children's double birthday party is also behind us, heartfelt thanks for the cozy patchwork carpets once again. The attic room feels so cheerful and warm with these carpets, it's really nice to peek inside now. They have a funny pattern. Who wove them, you must have written it down once, I've just forgotten it again, since it wasn't a familiar name.
Silja was afraid of her party. Socializing with guests was stressful for her. Unfortunately, Mrs. Burger happened to come to visit that very day, and I had to keep her company, so I couldn't always help with the games and almost forgot to serve the ice cream. The children still had fun, even though Silja was so scared that she felt sick. Anja wasn't bothered by big crowds. Unfortunately, it started to rain while we were playing outside, so we had to organize the sack races and other competitions inside. Luckily, we have space and there are no residents downstairs yet. Reinhard enthusiastically took part in all the birthday celebrations, including eating ice cream. Isn't that a bit of a distraction from the fun? Sometimes the boy is amazing. He listens to music on the radio. I once said, "Now there a harp is played in the radio." Reinhard then ran to the attic, got Mirja's music textbook, which has pictures of instruments on the covers, find what he was looking for, show me a picture of a harp and says "This is a harp!".

He can also tell by ear when violins, pianos or flutes are being played. Once, when flute music came on the radio, he insisted, that Mirja was playing on the radio. Today he marched around with Mirja's old flute and declared: I have a wind instrument! Reinhard can also be very affectionate. In the mornings he comes to me into the bed when Jürgen has gotten up, which none of my other children have done.
When I am scolded or punishing him, he doesn't calm down until he has apologized, and what about those carnival pictures: Reinhard was dressed up half "Cinderella" and half "Little Red Riding Hood", but he himself thought he was a "princess". Of course, this is only because he grew up with girls, jewelry and skirts come naturally to him. Most of the time he was a cowboy, just like Mirja. He is not a woman by nature, playing with dolls doesn't even come to his mind, even though we have plentyful of dolls in all sizes. Cars, tractors, and trains are his favorite toys and he knows his father's toolbox very well. Recently I asked him to bring me a screwdriver. I thought he wouldn't know what it was, and I waited nervously, but he right brought a screwdriver. Uncle Gotthard was on a visit to Europe, although he didn't make it to us. He was at Mutti's in Hamburg and then they both went on a plane trip to Paris. It was Mutti's first time in Paris and that was the first plane trip of her life. Uncle Gotthard is terribly generous, Mutti of course didn't have to pay anything for this trip. We are starting to penny-pinching all the more, because Jürgen has decided to leave Glanzstoff anyway and has already applied for a government job. (Up until the age of 39, there is still a chance to get into a civil service relationship) So this year will be a turning point in our lives in any case. The cuckoo chirped non-stop in the forest this morning. The birch leaves are already big. The oaks in the forest are opening their buds. Swallows have already been seen flying, but I don't think there is a shortage of flies yet. I wish you both a very beautiful spring,

Happy Pentecost,
Liisa

Hello! Heinsberg, June 17, 1972

Our heartfelt thanks to both of you for your hard work and efforts on behalf of the seaside plot. Hopefully, you will continue to enjoy success in your endeavors. The 5,800 Finnish marks were sent from here on Thursday, and I hope they will arrive early next week. When I heard that the whole gang was unanimously in favor of the large plot, I felt that this was proof that even seeing it with my own eyes would not change my mind, and the decision, which Jürgen also immediately agreed to, was spontaneous, i.e., unconsidered. After calculating the purchase price of 29,000 according to the exchange rate, I got a result of about 23,000 DM in German marks, which is not much different from the 20,000 we had in mind.
If the area is, as I remember my father saying, about 3,800 m², then the price per square meter is not that expensive after all. At the moment, we are most interested in more detailed information about the plot, such as the length of the shoreline, the shape of the plot, the trees, and so on, and secondly, the terms of the sale, i.e., when the full price must be paid (should we bring the money with us when we arrive) or will the seller allow us time to pay? We will definitely need to take out a loan. The question is how long the loan will be for and what the interest rate will be. Jürgen once asked a local bank manager, who said that the interest rate would be 10 percent. We heard from some acquaintances that the interest rate is 8%. How much interest does the cooperative charge on loans? Yesterday, Jürgen received a phone call informing him that he had been selected for a position as a lecturer at the Technical University of Neumünster (actually the Technical and Social University of Kiel). Neumünster is 70-80 km north of Hamburg, so it would be closer to Finland for the whole group, and if you combine these two things that came up in the same week, I have to say that a teaching position also comes with vacations that can be spent at a beach cottage. On the other hand, it is actually difficult to find the time. And in all honesty, it must be admitted that Jürgen sometimes hoped he would not be elected so that he could solve this problem.

Ten years of work have been wasted, in a way, working hard in the hope that it would also indirectly benefit himself. Unfortunately, he has not reached a position in his career where he is completely satisfied with his work. When one adds to this the company's current, perhaps only temporary, financial difficulties, one really starts to look around to see if there is anything else out there. The positive thing about being selected is that he was selected for the first job he applied for. It is encouraging, especially when you see in the newspaper that there is a surplus of chemists, with many applicants and only a few positions available. Jürgen does not believe he has any chance of getting the job in Parainen, so I do not think he will apply for it. The weather is weirdly changeable, yesterday it was ugly, today it is beautiful, but overall it is too cold and damp. The ferry tickets are now in order, I'll go and pick them up tomorrow, so today is June 17. It's a national holiday, and professional politicians are giving speeches on the issue of unification. They probably don't have an audience anymore. Last night we visited the village where another Finnish lady lives. Mirja and her daughter are classmates, but strangely enough, our Finnishness doesn't seem to bring us together very much; we are far too different. Mrs. Guindig is a lively and talkative Karelian, a dominant type, not to say self-centered. The same applies to her daughters. Mirja has many friends, but even though Marina was at her birthday party and vice versa, critical remarks are at the forefront. It occurs to me that we still need to ask about the purchase of the plot of land: how much will the taxes, registration fees, and other taxes cost, and how much is the annual property tax? Or is there no tax at all if you don't live in Finland? The neighbor's daughter has mumps, but none of our children have had it yet. We'll see if they get sick before the trip or after we leave, or if we'll be spared once again. Reinhard has, of course, been playing with Corinna the whole time. It's always exciting before a trip, but coming home is still the best part of the trip, and we look forward to it like children look forward to Christmas. My mind is filled with images of bright peace and the scent of summer on the swing.
With warmest regards

Liisa + family

Mom, dear dad! Heinsberg, August 14, 1972

I have been delaying writing this, knowing that once I start, homesickness will well up in my eyes and my heart will grow heavy as I think about that wonderful time one and a half, two, three, and four weeks ago. When I get there, it's like coming home, no matter how many years have passed in between. At Mom and Dad's, one feels thoroughly pampered, with delicacies on the table. In general, the food in Finland is much tastier, the bread and viili and butter, not to mention the salmon, of course. Not a day goes by without me missing it and wanting to re-live those wonderful vacation days. Thank you, dear parents, especially for the raanu's that found their place. A kankainen rauta raanu on the map of Finland in the dining room and "bear hibernation" raanu next to Anja's bed. The trip went very well, even though it rained a little at sea, and the weather in Germany was worse than in Finland. We spent the night in Hamburg and visited Neumünster, which made a rather pleasant impression; we will probably enjoy living there once we have settled into our new surroundings after the move. We spent another night in Hamburg and arrived here in Heinsberg on Saturday as usual. The shops were open, as it happened to be the first Saturday of the month, and once we had unpacked our bags and eaten, we immediately started picking currants. The harvest was good; the currants weren't rotten because it had been rainy and cool while we were away, except for the first week, which had been hot. I got 40 bottles of juice, some of which had turned to jelly, so I had to open them again and add water. Unfortunately, our dishwasher broke down right away, so I had to put the children to work washing the dishes. A large pile of mail is still waiting to be sorted, and there was a lot of laundry, but it got done quickly because the weather happened to be beautiful on Monday. On Tuesday, it was already oppressively hot, and then a thunderstorm came. The weather had been really sweltering, hot, and humid. On Thursday, I was able to get to the living room windows... I don't know what day it is today, but at least a couple of days have passed. Today the photos arrived, they turned out really well and I really want to go back to summer and sunshine, because here it's been just as dreary since Sunday, cold too, actually already autumnal, and with the children going back to school, summer is over. After a week, my enthusiasm has waned, and the housework feels like the same old endless and boring chore. If the sun were shining, I might be a little more enthusiastic about doing it. Last Saturday, Jürgen found a good blackberry bush. One, two, we picked delicious berries. On Sunday, we preserved them. If the weather were a little better, we might be able to get some more berries from there, but I guess the rain will ruin the rest.


Reinhard got a burst of Finnish-speaking enthusiasm here at home, he asked a lot of questions about everything he could find in Finnish. Now he starts to protest when I say something in Finnish again. Everyone at school must have talked about the trip, and Anja taught the music school students "Jaakko-kulta" in Finnish. At least the kitchen looks much more lived-in now that there is a rug on the floor. Once again, a warm hug to my mother in my thoughts. I saw in the Perniön Seudun Lehti newspaper that Dr. Forssell died on the day we left. He was described very eloquently in the obituary. I think almost everyone in Perniö was his patient at some point, except of course those who are in perfect health. I will send the books back to my mother as soon as possible. It was also a summer vacation experience, rare in its life story, extremely interesting, downright unbelievable in many places, and yet in its own way very captivating history, showing what sacrifices industry demanded in its early days. During our absence, Jürgen's resignation request had caused quite a stir. Who knows how many more will follow suit, but at least today's press conference announced that Glanzstoff is facing its first year of loss in its history. Otherwise, he will not be allowed to leave until a year has passed, and he will receive severance pay for two years. There were strong rumors that we were moving to Finland. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Jürgen's subordinates were reportedly shocked by the news. This is understandable, as his superiors always felt that he had too good a relationship with his subordinates. Glanzstoff has always been run in an undemocratic manner, with managers required to be able to walk over the bodies of their subordinates. This is indeed what happens, as cardiac arrest is not a rare occurrence, and it is often said that the supervisor had been putting pressure on the subordinate just before the incident. Some have even jumped out of windows. I haven't finished the letter yet, so you'll have to wait a little longer.


Sorry. August 20, a lovely Sunday morning. The children are at church. Reinhard also wants to go to church, but Mirja has to be paid extra for that, otherwise no one will agree to take her. Yesterday we picked blackberries for the second time. Princess Sleeping Beauty should be grateful that only slave roses grew around her castle, because if blackberries had happened to be nearby, in five years the whole castle would have disappeared under them, and even the most daring prince would not have been able to penetrate the thorny thicket even with a Caterpillar. As a result, our hands are covered in scratches like cat claw marks, and since there are usually thistles and nettles in the thicket, you can't say that picking is much fun, unless the abundance of the harvest brings the picker satisfaction despite everything. Jürgen has caught Lapland fever. The night before last, we sat next to the map and looked at where we could go next time. There's no point in dampening our enthusiasm today by saying that we'll probably do something else next summer. He calculates that he will have almost the entire summer off if Glanzstoff's final vacation begins at the start of June and his new job doesn't start until September. What a summer that will be! In any case, this summer was a success, and even now, three weeks later, I still feel as if I were with all of you. Images of being at home with all my siblings, being on my own beach, the warm side of the rock still on my skin, the sun glistening in my eyes, chatting in the yard, flash before my eyes. And it was nice to get to know the new, changed atmosphere on the swing. And then to realize that everything has basically stayed the same, the sound is the same as before. And the journey across Finland, hundreds of kilometers of beloved homeland, blue lakes, gray barns, red pine trunks, swamps, reindeer, and fells. On the morning of departure, tears come back to my eyes, there's nothing I can do about it. On behalf of all of us, heartfelt thanks,
Mom and Dad, love and greetings

to the whole gang

Liisa

September 19, 1972
Dear Mom and Dad!
Thank you so much for Mom's letter, which arrived today. We heard all the news from home, both good and bad, worrying and joyful. Mom has the best pen. I understand very well that you don't want to write about unpleasant things at all. I am picking up my pen to tell you about the success of our last trip. We hired a babysitter for Mutt and traveled to Neumünster to hear details about the school program from Jürgen. Secondly, we wanted to preliminarily explore the possibilities of setting up our own place and building. The college itself is located on the edge of a well-maintained park. In the middle of the building is a lovely lawn with flower beds. The school facilities are of average size, the buildings are fairly new, and there are relatively few students, as the whole thing is still in its infancy and the teaching staff is not yet complete. I was very sorry to hear that Jürgen will not be starting until next summer. One of our colleagues is a former classmate of Jürgen's from Hamburg, and we turned to him first with all our questions, as he himself is building his own house near Neumünster. He helped us a lot by acting as a guide and telling us about places and opportunities. We saw his house and other half-finished buildings, and we got the address of a real estate agency. Early the next morning, we headed there, and luck was on our side, because that very day, the agency started selling 18 plots of land. The area is located 11 km from Neumünster towards Bad Segeberg. We went to see it and decided to buy a plot right away. We had heard from Jürgen's colleague that the prices of the plots ranged from 30 to 35 marks per square meter. Here we got a plot for 5.5 marks. Square meters + share of the area's water, road, and other costs for a total of 13,500. This brings the price of the plot to 21,000, which is cheaper than living a little closer to Neumünster. The area is currently farmland, but stakes were erected to mark the boundaries. We immediately received a map showing the division of the area, which also has a line drawn on it indicating where the house must be located.

The type of roof structure for each building had also already been specified. The deal was very affordable, as all types of roof shapes were included in the plan, and since we were among the first to sign up, we were able to choose exactly the one we wanted. That same afternoon, we signed the deed of sale at the notary's office. We had already familiarized ourselves with several prefabricated models, and that afternoon we had an appointment to visit a factory to take a closer look at the model we had chosen for our first home. We then heard from several sources that it was possible to get "turnkey" houses built in the usual way in Neumünster, and we obtained the drawings and cost estimate for one such house. After reviewing it, we were surprised to find that it was actually cheaper than a prefabricated house. We will probably build according to these drawings, although the matter has not yet been finally decided. The building would probably be ready in September-October next year, if everything goes according to plan. That is a little too late, as Silja and Mirja should be able to start the new school year at their new school. Jürgen may take them with him before the actual move. Overall, Jürgen has not regretted leaving Glanzstoff, as he has heard some bad news. The trade union organized a strike at the Glanzstoff factory in Bredene (the Netherlands) (a factory scheduled for closure), and upon hearing this, the workers at the Wuppertal factory also went on strike immediately. The factory under construction in Ireland is not getting production up and running. Apparently, the Irish are not the most industrious people. There are fears of a million-dollar loss.

September 20: Yesterday is over, and today has turned into evening. Today, I washed almost all the light curtains and some of the windows, the ones I had decided to clean right after my vacation, but I always put off unpleasant chores. Still, I don't know if now was the right time, because even though the flies are currently in hibernation, the beautiful October weather may wake them up, and then there will be traces of them everywhere. The flies in this area are a phenomenon in themselves. When autumn arrives, they come inside to sit, and wherever they sit, they leave a terrible stain. Fortunately, the heating is now working, and after the cold spell, we can once again enjoy cozy, warm moments at home. Jürgen is playing the piano, and the children are asleep. Tomorrow, Jürgen has a trip to Konz, which is near Trier. He went there last fall and said the trip was difficult and downright dangerous because of the fog. Right now, there is also fog on most mornings. Hopefully, the weather will be better for the trip. I'm already worried because our car has had bad luck lately. First, Jürgen scratched the right-hand doors on the garage door, then on the way to Neumünster, someone dented the left front door in a parking lot, and to top it all off, I dented the left-hand door on the garage door. For months, we've been getting through narrow doors with flying colors, and now we've both dented them within a couple of weeks.

Accidents usually come in series, but after the third one, there could be a longer break now. Especially since Jürgen fixed your bruises so they're almost invisible. I didn't notice anything unusual on your neck when we were in Perniö. However, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. On the 26th. I hope it has nothing to do with the surgery you had done using the Japanese method, which was supposed to have a healing effect on your asthma. In my mind, I have already planted all kinds of things in our garden in Neumünster. We will have quite a large garden, as the area is 1385 m^2, and only part of it will be taken up by the house and roads. When we leave here, we will take all the trees, shrubs, and flower seedlings that we have planted ourselves. Fortunately, it is autumn, which is the best time for planting, and there is a large area of good garden soil, which is dry sandy soil, and there are two large forest areas nearby, which is rare in Germany. Have you heard anything from Särkisalo? Couldn't you get a copy of a map of those areas from there too? Here it seemed to be a matter of course. It was the first thing that came to mind. Incidentally, the other partner in the company is our future neighbor, so we believe that there should be no hidden problems with the deal. We will also receive a bank guarantee for the price of the plot until our name is registered in the land register. Warm regards from all of us.
Best wishes
with heartfelt thoughts, Liisa

Hi mom and dad, Heinsberg 14.10.1972

I finally managed to post that package last week, which had a little something for everyone - so the books and marmalade for you mom, ice cream bags for Päivi, and for dad, if he will accept, those pajamas and wool vest. They are used, but Jürgen refuses to wear them anymore because of their wool feel, and they have been in my closet for many years now. He thinks that all wool pants are a bit coarse and I have to line the seams separately with soft fabric. But if dad can't use them either, then cut them for rug rags. The children's clothes then are for Onerva or rather said for Sohvi, they probably don't fit for her mostly yet, but since I no longer have use for them, I'm trying to make space in the closets.

Then it was time to send the real blackberry bush, I've already posted it, but the package came 400g over 10kg in weight and I would have had to pay an extra 9 DM for these extra grams, so I took the package back home and then threw away the stain, it's not worth that much. Let's see another time, what kind of bush it is, you will find out about the taste of the berries through my jelly. I'm excited to hear your opinion. I got a letter from Päivi yesterday, a happy bride by all accounts. At least the whole rest of the world had been forgotten, because I was very much missing information about the results of mother's hospital visit. So what was said there?

We've also been expecting the deed or at least information about the sales conditions from father every day, as we've already sold those securities we'd need for the payment of the plot, and the money is waiting in the bank, if the payment conditions still require a later date, we could still temporarily invest it somehow. Could you, dear father, write what we should do now and has it been done yet? In the meantime, we've also signed the building contract for our house from the price of 168000 DM. Mutti will probably loan us an interest-free loan of about 15-20000 DM, we have almost 100000 DM ourselves, and the rest has to be obtained from the bank, the state or somewhere else. It'll be built in the usual way by masonry, and from the outside, it'll look roughly like this: (sketch)

Downstairs there are two rooms and a kitchen, upstairs 4 rooms and a bathroom. Both ends are the same, or there are two balconies for ventilation. The floor area will be 155 square meters, which is quite enough, unless we have some new children in the new apartment. Hopefully, we will benefit from having met the director of the Geilenkirchen savings bank, who even invited us as guests next Monday. Last night we were at the theater watching Dürrenmatt's Meteor, but we didn't find it particularly good.

Otherwise, we have just been canning more apple sauce, picking the few apples from the trees, and Jürgen harvested the carrots, turnips and beets from the ground today. It has been relatively beautiful outside in October, sometimes foggy but otherwise sunny and cloudless.

Yesterday Jürgen took the day off, the children are on autumn break, and we went sightseeing at the Eiffel tower. The Asterix and Obelix comic strip is very popular among the children here, they tell of the confrontations between the Romans and the Gauls, and conveniently we were yesterday at the ruins of a temple built by the Romans around 300 AD.
The latest summer vacation pictures are being developed and will be ready in a week, we'll see how mom's Klematis looks in the picture. I await your letter anytime soon.

With heartfelt regards,

all of us and your daughter Liisa.

PS: Imagine, I sent a letter to Arja and probably forgot to write "Finland" on the envelope. Now I don't know if the book has reached? There was Leila Aaltonen's work certificate inside, has it arrived?

Dear Mom, dear Dad!

Many heartfelt thanks for the letter and especially for the package. The lingonberries were in perfect condition, but the package had leaked quite a bit of juice into the mailbag. The cardboard containers had softened too much and let the juice out. The plastic bag held up best, with half a liter of juice still inside. The coffee and caramels were fine, as their packaging did not let moisture through, fortunately. The customs duty was 3.50 Deutsche Mark, which was more than I usually pay. Over three liters of lingonberries! It was a real luxury package! We will enjoy it for a long time to come. The caramels are already gone, though, as the family quickly divided up one bag among themselves, and Silja received the other as a special prize for her piano performance at the student concert last Wednesday. Admittedly, she didn't play flawlessly, even though it went pretty well overall. Silja was very upset that she had to sacrifice her day off, especially since it was also her best friend Karin's birthday party, which she had to miss. Life is planting thistles in Silja's path. That's why she had to be consoled with Fazer's best. I'm not quite sure whether my mother's surgery was last Monday or tomorrow. In any case, I wish her all the best. Our neighbor, who is a doctor, said that it is a very common condition, one that he himself suffers from. Apparently, he doesn't let the stones grow too large, but his wife (!!) presses them out before they get too big. So for them it's just a home delivery, but what's a surgeon when you need one? Hopefully my mother didn't suffer from the storm that raged here last week. The barometer dropped terribly low, lower than it has ever been here, and Jürgen suffered badly from asthma, which didn't let up at all during that time. He had a cold anyway, with a runny nose and cough, which of course made the situation worse. Otherwise, he is completely immersed in the house's finances and other matters. I also contribute to the finances in my own way by lowering the family's standard of living. No one needs to go hungry, but cookies and cakes are only made for the family's needs at Christmas. And we only put cheaper sausages and cheese spreads on our bread. Fortunately, half of the family prefers buttermilk to milk and butter, which has rarely been seen in this house since the summer holidays anyway. Fortunately, pork is relatively cheap, and we don't eat much beef anyway because it is tougher to chew than pork. However, our worst attempt at saving money was when we visited the Netherlands and saw that coffee was very cheap.

A half-kilo package cost only 4.30 guilders, but oh my, it tasted awful, or maybe it was pure Rio coffee, even though the name was Sanrio, and the San- (Santos) prefix was probably just made up to boost sales. Never again will we have Dutch coffee in this house. The children have started making Christmas presents. Mutti is coming to spend Christmas with us. I'm trying to teach Reinhard a Christmas poem, and I'm sure he'll learn it, he's not a stupid boy, even though he can't count to three yet, except by chance. He is much more interested in letters. He already knows how to write "Isi," although the "S" is always mirror image because he writes with his left hand. Silja's schoolwork has gone well; in her last math tests, she got two 2 (=9) and no lower than a 3 (=8). His language grades have been similar. Mirja is a little weaker. They haven't gotten their last tests back yet. Jürgen did practice with her beforehand, but he still doesn't know about Mirja; she can make some really silly mistakes. Anja is doing as well as ever. She regularly gets a 4 in calligraphy, and her notebooks are messy, no matter how much she talks about it. At least she gets good grades in math (2) and, fortunately, her spelling isn't as bad as her handwriting. Last Sunday's elections went really well. Jürgen voted for Brandt, and Mutti wore an election poster on her chest in support of Willy. That is the best solution in terms of foreign policy. We had guests on the eve of the election, and opinions ran high, as none of the group were supporters of any one party. Helsinki is always in the news as the venue for the SALT negotiations and the European Security Congress. Otherwise, I can't think of anything new to report at the moment.
Warmest regards,
Liisa + family.

Monday: Päivi's letter makes it relatively certain that the surgery will take place today. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I forgot to answer the question about baby clothes last night. There's no need to send them here. If I need them, I'll send a separate request. I really mean that they can be passed around the family as long as there are babies and they are still usable, so it would be nice if you could find a corner of the closet for that cardboard box. Here are the promised summer family photos. Clematis makes a wonderful backdrop. In this photo I'm sending, Dad looks a little stern, but in the one we have, he's smiling. Then there's a photo of our dining room with 'Kankainen rauta' in the background.
All the best,
Liisa

PS: Of course, Arja's letter came back to me after spending a week in Germany. I'm sure she's received it by now.

Heinsberg 12.12.1972

Hi, dear father!
Thank you for your information, the deal is then clear. Could you please send the deed of sale here, we want to see it first and besides, we need it so that we can first apply to the foreign trade department for the permission to send the money. When it comes to such huge sums, it cannot be sent without a receipt and we need the deed of sale for clarification. That is why it may take a little while before we can send the amount, it does not depend on anything else. Then we need the seller's bank account number, name and address and the name of the bank of course so that we can send it directly from here, and we will also get a receipt, it is precisely his account number that is important to know. Next step then, since I am the landowner and I will probably have to pay taxes on it and file a tax return and so on, could you help me with that matter. If it is possible to get a tax exemption for some reason, you could also use my expertise in this regard. Otherwise, things are already hectic around here for Christmas. The ham is in the brine and I guess I should bake gingerbread this week. Mutti is coming as a Christmas guest next week. Of course, I am not ready for my Christmas presents yet. There are no packages coming to Finland and my own children mostly only receive gifts I have made myself, but they know that an own house is an expensive investment these days, and for that reason, Christmas presents mainly come in the form of "bricks" and do not appear under the tree. Anja is at the theatre today to watch a children's Christmas play, they go there after school.

Päivi wrote that Mother has been released from the hospital, but she didn't reveal her wedding date, which was announced by her mother, which information was announced in the invitation. Of course, it breaks my heart that I won't be able to attend my sister's wedding again. I heard that they were planning to have a longer engagement period, and I was already happy in my mind that I would be able to attend the wedding next summer, but coming in the winter is bad in that the family won't be able to join us, and I would have a bad conscience if I left my children and husband during the festive period, when we don't have that much family life anyway. Of course, Mutti would take care of the family in the meantime. What could one give that young couple as a wedding present? Have they expressed any wishes for gifts, and how much do they plan to spend on their own finances. I imagine that the house has as much household goods as the young couple needs, so Päivi hardly needs any real household goods, or what do you think, since you know a little more about their plans than I can gather from these few sentences in my imagination. I guess I'm in a hurry with this matter. But otherwise, I have to stop now and get on with the household.
Very warm Christmas greetings to everyone
From Liisa
Send the deed of sale by registered letter, please

Heinsberg, 17.12.72
"and so Christmas has already arrived in the North..." and my Christmas thoughts come to the old home and to all of you with the letter. Christmas at home is probably already colored by wedding preparations, but still the fir tree and candles do not leave their mark, their scent calms and makes you think. Quite significant events will happen in Liisa's family chronicle this year. Returning to the shores of Särkisalo means returning to Finland on the other foot, and moving further north, which, although in practice will happen first half of the year, is in the same direction. We hope a lot from both of our most important decisions and at least to finally settle down in the place we have decided on. Thanks to Päivi, the family circle will expand again, so there will be 23 of us in total, almost three times as many as at the beginning. Thank you for the invitation to come to Päivi's wedding, but the family is keeping me at home and I have experience of the difficulties of winter travel from 10 years ago. I wish the family a very beautiful celebration as their youngest member finally leaves the nest and settles on his own branch. I can hardly keep my thoughts together. Anja is practicing Christmas carols on the flute and Reinhard is singing his verses with a squeal that imitates the sound of the flute. This musically gifted family plays on Sundays, Jürgen is arranging 3 Finnish songs for the piano for me as a Christmas present, two are already ready: "Sylvian laulu" and "Kun maass' on hanki" Third comes "Hiljaa, Hiljaa". The family has been busy, each in their own way. Silja has woven a coffee pot hat fabric for me, a pillow for Jürgen, Anja molded an ashtray for dad from clay and made a pot stand from beads. Mirja sawed a wooden key holder board and is making a chain-crochet embroidered apron for Grossmutti. I have also sewn something for everyone, except for Anja, who inherits so much of everything that she gets other kinds of gifts. Yesterday I baked a German Christmas bun, two such fluffy lumps that there is enough to eat. Next week's program includes intensive Christmas preparations, baking gingerbread and cleaning. Mutti will come on Thursday. Today we have been invited to an Chrismas carol singing party at a family who also has four children, a little older than ours, though. They play the piano, flute and violin. I hope I can finish my letter before then, otherwise you will receive this letter post-Christmas time. I hope that your, mother's, surgery has healed well, even with some scars, and your asthma is better. Of course, the festive warming up wants to get going again, so try to take it easy. I must also tell you that this week a beautiful white stoat visited our yard in the middle of a bright day. It made a round in the garden and the whole family was lucky to see this visit of a very rare animal. Two deer were also in the woods at the same time. It felt like paradise to us. I hope you don't mind, even though I didn't send anything to Finland this year. I am grateful to you from the bottom of my heart for all the love you have shown us all this year.
Warmest Christmas greetings on behalf of all of us
Liisa

Dear Dad, Heinsberg 20.1.73

Thank you for the letter and the sales books with attachments. I thought they would send them to me from the bank but then you saw them too. We haven't seen all the border markers by the road since the summer, as the shape of the plot in this map is different at the top than in the map drawn by Jürgen, so that's where the missing square meters are. Thank you for offering to handle the registration of title side. Here are some questions:

1.) Is the title registration handled in court or are the papers sent to the Halikko District Court's office?

2.) If the title registration is handled in court, when is the next court hearing? That is, by when do the papers need to be sent back?

3.) Do I also need to include the beach plan or just the sales papers? The next question:

4.) concerns the concept between title registration and separation. Title registration means, I guess, that my ownership of the area in question is noted in some register. Separation, on the other hand, probably means that a surveyor comes and sets the boundary poles. There will then presumably be another fee for the surveyor. What is the time frame in which the surveying or separation is to be done and how much does it cost approximately? Or have I confused the terms? You wrote that the separation application must be made immediately. Where do I apply for it and could you also do it on my behalf? What does it mean to pledge separation rights? Is it necessary and in what case?

Well, these is quite a bunch of questions, my knowledge of practical legal matters is a bit weak. We have not yet received a building permit and the loan application requested from public funds has only just arrived with interim information. The winter has so far been so mild, that it hasn't posed any obstacles to the start of the project. It has been grey weather.

Jurgen's asthma has been quite a bit worse, although it is still mild compared to mom's asthma for the time being. Reinhard made it to kindergarten. The first days were certainly teary, but he got used to it relatively quickly. He doesn't participate much in others' play yet. He just watches from the side and gets to know the kids. Now he goes willingly. Unfortunately, it's a long journey, I have to take and fetch him four times a day. Once he escaped and met me on the way. Thank God the cars hadn't run over him.

The cold (flu) was going around from one chiild to another. Today Silja has a red nose. I am still busy making Paivi's gift. Otherwise, nothing notable has happened here. I wish you both well.
I almost forgot: Today two issues of Suomenkuvalehti and Pernionseudun Newspaper arrived.

Heartfelt kisses as thanks and also for sending Mom the Almanac.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,

Heartfelt greetings Liisa

Heinsberg, 10.2.1973
Heippa hei!
Thanks for the letter to your father. I am sending you both of these power of attorneys, so that they are sufficient, and it would be nice if you would initiate it, if the winter is this mild until the end, then perhaps the surveyor will be able to get to work earlier. I hope you are feeling better already. It is good that you have sought treatment, it always helps somehow when you can complain to a doctor about your ailments, at least I always feel much better afterwards. I am also under medical treatment, nothing serious, I just caught the flu from Reinhard and was even in bed for a couple of days. Since then I've had quite a cough that doesn't really seem to be getting better, even though I'm actually in treatment now and I'm taking six different pills (I gave up seven out of caution, my body can hardly handle that much medicine at once). I have low blood pressure, which is probably why I was often a bit tired and I boosted my mood with coffee, which was probably the right method for my blood pressure. Not only did my stomach not really care for coffee after that flu, but when I gave it up, I got a headache for the whole day. Just to be on the safe side, I also had a lung exam and a blood test, which was good. Now I feel pretty good again, and the coffee tastes like it used to. There are enough lice, even though the children are getting older and need less care. Reinhard also spends days at kindergarten, although of course it also takes time to take him there and pick him up. Now he really likes to go, occasionally comes home as the happy owner of cars he got from friends, and was quite angry when I didn't have time to take him to kindergarten last Friday afternoon when we visited Holland with Jürgen. The sales have also kept me busy a bit, because you're always looking to see if you can get something a little cheaper. Children's shoes are such an expense that I try to get them at least from sales. Yes, you can get them for half the price. Of course, this means that people in our area don't really get to live fashion-consciously, because they mainly sell the old collection cheaper. Thick-soled shoes are coming into fashion, to be honest, the eye isn't used to them yet so that they would be pleasing, and the children don't even like them, so you can save money in that regard. Fashion changes so quickly these days that you don't even have time to follow it, it's pointless to even try. You have to make sure that the models are somewhat classic, or at least have been in use for several years, then the eye starts to get used to them. - We received a building permit for our house this week, so that first hurdle has been overcome.


The whole thing is really exciting, when will we get to start and how will it develop and whether we will be able to move in in October and, and, and... - Aggie's big children, Christian and Susanne, our godchildren, will be confirmed on February 25th. Of course, we have been invited to Hamburg, or really just Jürgen, because we prefer not to have the children with us, but I guess we can't leave them alone, so I would have to stay home at least and Jürgen doesn't want to travel alone again. A 500-kilometer trip like that isn't really suitable for a quick visit, and if we take the children with us, we have to leave on time, so by 4 pm at the latest. We haven't yet been able to decide whether to go or not. - The dollar crisis hit us hard, because the $2,000 we lent to Helsinki is now worth a whole lot less than when we bought it. So this has been a real concrete help to the fatherland. Let's hope that those Americans are finally starting to recover, having gotten rid of their crazy war. Maybe Finland will also devalue in these circumstances, now that it's not much use to us anymore, since we already paid the price for that property. By the way, I'll just send a copy of the deed of sale to start with. I can't bear to part with the original just yet. Of course, I'll send it as soon as the time comes. I finished Päivi's wedding present this afternoon, a sigh of relief, although it was nice to do it. When I got halfway through, I did the rest as usual. It took time, though, all evenings and sometimes during the day. I haven't even had time to read my Christmas gift book yet, but now I'm getting down to all the things I've been putting off. I bought quite a bit of fabric from the sale, it's tempting, especially when you know what you can pay for fabric otherwise. I imagine I'll have time to sew trousers for Reinhard, a velvet dress for Silja, a half-coat and long trousers for Mirja, nothing for Anja again. Päivi sent her wedding photo, so I could comment on my impressions here, but the impartial review of the neighbour's lady will suffice: "She has found a handsome man!" This is the way of life, and there hasn't been a weekend at home for a long time, and the expenses don't seem to end in any way. Jürgen has tried giving up milk, because after thinking about it, he came to the conclusion that in recent years he has always increased his consumption of milk, and that may not be right. There has been a bit of improvement, I hope it continues.
Hi, Hi and warm greetings from all of us,
Good health to both of you, Liisa

Heinsberg, 2.4.73

Hi, dear mother and father,
Many greetings and thousands of thanks to mother for the two letters. I was happy about both, from the first I heard that my package for Päivi had arrived, I was a little afraid when I didn't hear anything that it had gone to you unknown people. And from the second I heard other information about Päivi's condition. Yes, she has already written herself, but of course only on the side, being mysterious is a new trait in her. All in all, it was lovely to receive a long letter again and hear all the most important things. Of course, all sorts of things happen to other people, I myself was so upset when Annemarie visited that I couldn't grill my chicken anymore, because I had forgotten how the barbecue rotation axle works, and the chickens were twirling here and there on the barbecue rotation axle. Sweating, I tried to tie them to the axle until I finally gave up on the hopeless attempt and put them on the baking sheet. It was only when I was washing the grill that I noticed that oh my, these forks are what hold the chicken in. Fortunately, the chicken was still edible, only a little late. So the visit went relatively well, Reinhard was good at keeping the guests company and the girls also always brought out their playing cards, when the guest would otherwise have had to wait for the hostess alone. A storm is raging outside, the third one this winter. The previous one had brought down a forest in northern Germany, I have never seen such destruction in my life, a truly miserable sight, hectares and kilometers of trees on both sides of the road were broken to the point of being unusable or completely uprooted. Fortunately, this destruction was to the south of Hamburg, so at least our "own" forest had not yet suffered. Jürgen had walked around the building last week to take a look at the forest, it is only a kilometer away from our new building and is large and obviously rich in game. The building has progressed well, the basement roof has been poured, and the walls of the ground floor are halfway up. Hopefully there won't be many rainy days, when no one will be in the buildings. I hear everything still looks reliable and the contractor had mentioned something to the effect that it could possibly be finished earlier. It all depends a lot on whether anyone gets sick and whether the weather is good. Keep your fingers crossed. It would be best if we could move in in August, and the children could start school right away at the start of the school year, which is mid-August in Schleswig-Holstein. Jürgen starts working there on May 21st, so he goes from one job to another without a day's break in between, but his summer vacation also starts in July, if I remember correctly, when the school closes. In early May we have to make another trip to the building together, then we have to choose all the colors and designs for the floors, walls, etc. and say where the electrical sockets will go and what else. We're trying to make it fit in with the high school students here, so Silja and Mirja would also have a couple of days off from school.

They are currently on three weeks of Easter vacation and of course this weather is damn bad and all the neighbors' children are with us. So the eternal chaos will continue for the next three weeks unless the weather improves, then there will be no one on land or in the mountains. Silja and Mirja are taking short bicycle trips to the area with their classmates, Reinhard stands in the street and stares at the construction site on the opposite side of the street for hours. Anja climbed on top of the piles of rubbish there the first day and came home like a piggy that had been smothered in mud, so guess what, I got a kick out of it. By the way, Anja is incredibly lucky, she gets so many used clothes as gifts, not only Silja and Mirja's old ones but also from the neighbors and Aggie, that I really don't know what I would do with new ones for her, when the wardrobe is already full. She always gets double the amount of underwear, because Silja and Mirja were so similar in size that she always had to sew or buy their own for both of them. The underwear is still the most worn out, but she gets new ones every now and then. I have nothing against Anja, and she is not quite as vain as her famous sisters. A year ago we bought new bed linen, a dozen of both bottom and top sheets, 8 duvet covers for the children and a dozen terry towels + pillowcases. I sewed the sheets and pillowcases myself, just naming them. I got lace for two of them from lace I received as a wedding present, but I wouldn't bother with crocheting, I know better things to do. So I'm not in any kind of trouble right now, because even though the first sheets are starting to get frayed, there are still a whole bunch of them that are still usable. From Finland, I'm actually most interested in getting llama shirts, because children seem to like wearing them in the winter and there's no similar item of clothing here. Mirja usually has her nape exposed, as the girls' shirt sizes are too short for her, and the women's sizes have a dirty bust circumference. Last week there were a few wonderfully beautiful days. On Saturday, Jürgen wanted to go for a little spring walk in the forest. A little walk in the forest always has to be preceded by a long car journey. Children usually don't like it that much, and so they protested as much as they could. Reinhard had had a bit of a stomachache all day, so I was a bit hesitant too, but what's the point, when the weather was really summery, I might as well try it. Unfortunately, Reinhard's stomach was more painful than it looked, he felt sick during the journey, and before anyone could get the bag out, the car and his mother were vomiting all over, so there was nothing to do but return home, fortunately, because a little later he also had diarrhea and the next day he also had a slight fever. Mirja was the next patient in the middle of the week, and I was the next to go to bed. I must have been the strongest, because I lost no less than 4 kg of weight in one night. I haven't felt so light in decades.

Then it was Jürgen and Anja's turn, although Jürgen was only a little while away. Silja is the only one who hasn't caught the infection so far. She is the best at isolating herself, she is often not seen among our other children, she usually paces around in her own room knitting, reading or doing her homework. She did have to be the housekeeper when I was sick, but ah! that's a pain. Silja does everything reliably and to the end, but she does know how to grumble and sigh, so that she doesn't dare to burden the young lady too much. She never attempts to smile, and she will certainly never be a cheerful helper. Mirja is naturally lazy, too, but still occasionally helpful and considerate and most of the time also in a good mood. The Easter lilies have opened their buds on the walls and in warm places, the primroses are blooming charmingly, the forsythias are also starting to bloom, you can already cut the chives into stems to spice up sauces, and the rhubarb stalks are starting to stretch. The first seeds are in the ground here too. The buds of the white anemones were also visible in the pasture, but it was a bit cool so they weren't open when I drove past it last week. I have lettuce seedlings in a flower pot and I need to train them. The fruit trees also have quite large buds, it's just that it's often still so cool at night that it would be a shame if they started blooming too early, attracted by the sun. I think I have some kind of a void in my head, because I don't remember at all whether I wrote about the fact that we didn't get to Christian and Susanne's confirmation, when it was all over the place here, and then we weren't in Hamburg and Neumünster until a week later, but I guess I should have written about it. Here, these confirmation school children are celebrated quite lavishly, Aggie had also bought a roast venison for dinner (including us, of course) and paid no less than 112 DM for it, as Mutti told me, because she had picked it up from the shop herself and knew the price to the penny. Then the confirmation children throw parties for each other and while we were in Hamburg, Christian had a couple of friends over, they had apparently served wine too, because Christian was probably a bit drunk. Günther scolded him a bit, they had been given wine since they were children, so that they would learn to know their limits, but apparently they haven't learned.

I do remember that, to both of our dismay, Susanne and Christian were given a glass of wine when they were three or four years old. Silja and Mirja seem to have learned their lesson better, because we always told them that alcohol is poison, and they still don't dare taste even a small drop. Before Annemarie's visit, I washed all the windows and curtains, it was a two-day job, but now I can admire my blooming amaryllis on the windowsill with a clear conscience. I have three larger bulbs in one pot, each with a flower stalk at the same time, eight flowers in total! I got one bulb from Mutti when Pappi died four years ago, it has multiplied quite a lot, I gave one of the flowering ones to a neighbor and two more pots are about to flower, and besides, the three bulbs will have two more stems in the pot. It is white in color, pure white, actually I would prefer the red one. Actually, I should go to bed. Jürgen is at a colleague's 25th birthday party tonight (= been a member of Glanzstoff's staff for 25 years), so no one is ordering me to go to bed. I read late last night because I wanted to finally finish the English book I received as a Christmas present, but I didn't, and so it took up a bit of Monday morning. I also get a kind of holiday spirit when the kids are at home. I'm finally including a picture of those black raspberries in this letter. They've been bred to be thornless, but the fruit is the same as the wild ones.
And then I wish you both a very happy spring
and good health. With warmest regards again,

Liisa

I made a garden plan for us this afternoon and looked through the garden catalogue, that's the picture. Sometimes I think I'll send the whole catalogue, those pictures always make people go crazy with admiration. Of course, my own garden never meets this ideal.

Mom and Dad, my love! Heinsberg, April 25, 1973

I am sad to report that the mämmi has not arrived yet, although Mirja had time to thank me for it, of course the anticipation of pleasure was great, although when I received your letter on the 18th I already had great doubts. When I asked the post office about the delay in the package, they advised the sender to contact the post office, because they said they could do nothing here. Apparently the mämmi has already found its way to better mouths on the way. I don't think it will arrive here, and if it does, it is of course already completely moldy. For my part, I would advise you not only to inquire about where the package has gone, but also, so that the Post Office would be scared and really start to find out, to immediately demand compensation for the entire lost mämmi (it is ruined now anyway) and for the postage. The post office becomes more and more careless the more expensive the postage becomes. Did you send it by airmail or regular mail? It would be even more annoying to know if there was anything else in it. It must have been our first Easter without this special treat. Anyway, we were in Hamburg from Wednesday to Sunday because of the loan. Of course, we also visited the construction site and found that the building was really as it had been promised to be. Today, April 25th, was the day of the ridge celebration. Yes, they celebrate it here too by hanging some kind of bell-shaped thing on the ridge. And the builder, in turn, gives the workers a special bonus. Unfortunately, we couldn't be there for the occasion. An icy wind blew from the north to the construction site, next to which Mr. Zühlke is laying the foundation of his building, and I was just watching the excavator roar.

Saturday was a beautiful day. Mutti had invited the Landbeck seniors and juniors and us to a Millrestaurant for dinner. After eating, we walked through the forest, which was covered in white anemones and Mutti's favorite flowers, primroses. It was a lovely sight and everyone rushed to pick flowers. Mutti couldn't get enough until her hands were so full that they couldn't hold any more flowers. After drinking coffee, we drove to show Mutti and the children the new home and the effect was apparently positive. At least they know where we're going now. I've already received a reply from Honkavienti in Turku and they wrote that they would send Dad a copy of their letter. We've looked at the models in the catalogue they sent. You may still have that catalogue from Lasse. The models are the same, the prices have just gone up and are still going up. Is there any other company that makes the same type of summer cottage? It would be like comparing prices. "Joutsa", "Sysmä" and "Iso-pielinen" are under closer inspection. When we ask for a quote, they will certainly need precise information and information about the road and terrain, maybe they want to visit the site, I would be happy if you could represent me then. We plan to build next summer (1974) With this inflation, you really have to take a loan. I have a May Day party in the works. Children's birthdays are traditionally celebrated on May Day. There is not much information about gifts this year. Summer clothes mainly. Happy May Day. waving,
Liisa

PS: Reinhard recovered, but Mirja was sick on the way. Her 39.5 degree fever didn't shock us anymore.

Dear mother!

Thank you for your letter. It arrived by express mail already on the morning of the 27th and, of course, frightened me just by its arrival time. I would be happy if you could write again soon and tell about father's condition. Was it a heart attack or something else somewhere? Hopefully, the recovery progresses well, dad has enough patience to rest for a long time. The incident probably took a strong toll on your health too, of course, we all have been in thought with our father after receiving the information. I have not tried to call the hospital though, as it probably takes a long time to get someone knowledgeable on the phone, and from here you can't say "ward three", they don't understand to continue passing the message in the central telephone exchange. Send my regards to father, we hope that he recovers and refreshes as quickly as the spring is now making its entrance.

At the beginning of the week, the birches were still somewhat black, but now after a few beautiful and warm days, they are green with the bursting of the mouse ears. This morning we heard the first cuckoo cooing. Easter days were still cold, but the last day of children's vacation and the first school days were cloudlessly beautiful and sweetly warm. Today, they finally delivered that package of Mämmi. Unfortunately, it was so moldy that it couldn't be eaten. No wonder after exactly 4 weeks from shipment. I was so upset that I was almost crying. Thank you anyway for you and father for the good thought. One cannot foresee that airmail will delay from Finland to Germany for 4 weeks. To my knowledge, there have been no strikes that would have delayed the journey. The mail really messed up this time. Don't tell your father, he might be annoyed too much. No wonder if he loses the will to send, when he has to experience something like this.

I baked buns today, dairy-free and egg-free, so that even Jürgen can enjoy it. Asthma has been better now, so he was probably hypersensitive to both of these ingredients. Milk must be avoided so strictly that not even a piece of milk chocolate can be eaten, this is also noticeable. Although these sudden changes in air are also dangerous for both of you. In my opinion, this year there have been a lot of abrupt changes from dry to moist and calm to windy and now again yesterday sun and today rain.

Dear mom, despite all the worrying, stay calm and take care of yourself.
It would be good if someone could come home with you while dad is in the hospital.

Wishing all the best,
Warmly thinking,
Liisa

Dear mother,

Many heartfelt thanks for your letter and good news. Somehow it was relieving to hear that dad is getting out of the hospital again, and so soon, even though I wasn't really expecting any bad news. Isn't it so that if you survive a stroke, then being cautious means you are completely healthy again. And usually one becomes more cautious and calm and gives up a thousand hustles. There's always a lot to do at home. In any case, we wish dad continued improving health, peace of mind. Of course, it requires such from a go-getter who's always been busy. He doesn't really know how to leave work alone for a longer time. Actually, one doesn't understand why someone can't be lazy. I would certainly enjoy it. To be able to stay in bed longer in the morning, grab a book, and read in the middle of the day, or walk outside and watch the trees blossom.

But let's not yet, when Reinhard already woke up at a quarter to six and came begging for a sandwich, because he was so hungry. Yesterday he fell asleep at the kitchen table before dinner could even be served, so naturally his stomach rumbles in the morning. Actually, this is a Mother's Day letter, even if the initial use is not clear. In any case, I try to get this in the mail in time for it to arrive by Sunday. Maybe I should also use express. Thus, a warm and heartfelt kiss to dear mother as a thank you for all the letters, packages, home visits, kisses and effort, and for all the thoughts and sympathy. Who knows all the troubles of a mother, they are only felt in that Mother's love, which is also directed towards us big children, and then the children in a row give kisses to grandma and grandpa, they love you all the same regardless of the long distance and rare visits, just as they love nearby Grossmutter.

May is almost as cold and rainy as April. It rained buckets on May Day and only a couple of afternoons have been beautiful and hot. The variations are sudden and the barometer swings and the thermometer drops and rises. The cherry blossom was poor, its full glory never really came into its own and that's a shame, because there's no other joy from them when the blackbirds eat the cherries, if there are any. The lettuce seedlings we were growing on the window sill also went into the birds' (or rabbits') mouths. It's best to think about something else entirely. We have slowly been making the necessary purchases for the new home, lamps and furniture. These things need to be taken care of as long as Jürgen is still here. There was a tornado in Kiel this week, but even though it's only 35 km away, the building had no damage. It was just a local storm. The roof should now be ready and after that, the rain will no longer interfere with construction.

But now I have to stop.
Heartfelt greetings, Good health, beautiful May days!

Liisa, Silja, Mirja, Anja, and Reinhard

Heippa hei Mom and Dad! Heinsberg, 15.6.73
thanks for Mom's thorough letter and Dad's few lines, which were also rich in content. I decided to write thoroughly again, because it's summer vacation and today is also real hay weather. The farmers are all busy, the haystacks are dusting and the baling machine is singing rhythmically. The children's summer vacation started today. We were at the tennis court early this morning with Silja, and Anja went swimming together with the neighbours by car because now she can swim. It was hard work to learn, but her braid has been cut and Anja looks a lot like Päivi in ​​my opinion with short hair. Mirja is taking Reinhard to kindergarten to cure her cash crisis, so I can really nail it down and have a garden vacation. Silja brought home an excellent report card with an average of 1.8 and the worst grade was 3, and that was only in math. Mirja's report card was brought home with tears in her eyes. Maths had dropped to a five. That's just unavoidable, even though Jürgen worked hard with her to improve the degree. Otherwise, the certificate was impeccable in every way, 2 in languages, gymnastics, crafts, and music 1. Average 2.18. Anja came home barely hiding her satisfaction. The reason is that there was a "1" in music, the first "1" on her certificate. Otherwise, the certificate was beautifully mediocre, half "2"'s and half "3"'s. Average exactly 2.25. In Anja's case, the struggle with the degree was won, because she was also in danger of dropping to a "4". If it hadn't been for that one "5", I would have been completely satisfied with the result. So here were the latest news of the day. Jürgen was at home on Pentecost, coming and going by train, so he had 5 days left to be at home. The work itself doesn't bother him much. Lecturing is said to be easy, although he didn't try to throw himself into the game without preparation. There are only 18 hours of work per week, even on four days, so weekends are left for preparation time, and there are not many students, 300 in the entire university. In Neumünster, because most of the university is in Kiel, some also in Lübeck, it is a decentralized location, at least for now. The colleagues are nice. After all, everyone is independent, so there is no friction. The university is located under the roof of a technical college. The friction between them is said to be caused by mutual envy. Three former employees have become docents in Neumünster today. The house is ready for plastering. Now the plumbing, electrical and other basic installation work will begin. Normally there have been four men working there. Here, on the other side of the road, Glanzstoff's chief engineer Hund (= dog) is building his "doghouse" with the strength of at least eight men, as the grinning jaws immediately came up with the name of his house. It is almost half as big as ours and, according to rumours, will cost half a million German marks. Interest rates on loans have been rising rapidly, no one is saving in the bank anymore. The 8% interest rate we initially paid has now risen to 9%. On the other hand, the value of our own securities has certainly continued to slide downwards, we have to sell at a loss when we need the money. For this reason, we have become a little hesitant about whether we will be able to build in Särkisalo next summer. At the moment, it is simply not worth selling more securities than we absolutely have to in order to fill the construction fund. Jürgen suggested that we camp in Särkisalo next summer and showed the sentence from the Holiday Home book that Tuulikki had sent as a more reliable guarantee: "It is best to first get to know your plot of land by living in a tent the first summer". Does Lasse still have a tent? None of us have ever spent a night in a tent in our lives, so I dared to doubt our suitability for that kind of camping life. In any case, we will come to Finland next summer, whether we build one or not. As for relatives and acquaintances, you can do as you see fit for me, but don't promise so much to your neighbour that we don't have time to go to the beach. Family first, guests later. I think the principle is right in this case. It would be embarrassing to charge people who help you. I read what they said about prostate cancer in an encyclopaedia, and it said more or less the same thing as my mother wrote. Since it is very rare, I am sceptical about the possibility that my father has this rare disease. But if that were the case, there was a very comforting sentence in the encyclopaedia that it is very possible to live with it for many years. It is certainly right that doctors first rehabilitate the heart and then the rest of the body. Fortunately, Dad has always been concerned about exercise, so he is resilient to all kinds of illnesses. In any case, we are keeping our fingers crossed for you on June 26. I just received a letter from Päivi and heard that Reijo had already been on a tractor and was recovering well, but where did he get the stomach ulcer? Isn't it a disease of busy and subordinate people, at least not suitable for a peaceful country life. Päivi doesn't seem at all stressed out by her two jobs, but I guess the bread-making job is quite nice, when you can sit down to write a letter to your sister in between workdays. I was rereading Mom's letter and noticed that there were a couple of things in it that needed answering. First of all, stop fretting about the table and chair thing. I think it would be best for us to just get a long pub table and two benches. There won't be much furniture in there, the beds are just bunks. Secondly, our building is made of bricks. They don't actually build wooden buildings here, but the prefabricated houses that are becoming more common now are basically wooden houses, the frame structure is made of wood, the partitions and exterior walls are made of boards. You see a lot of these prefabricated houses now, because they are built quickly. By the way, our building also had a couple of weeks to wait because of the roof tiles. That tornado that blew the roof tiles down in Kiel in the spring was the reason. The first strawberries in our own land are starting to turn red, yesterday I found a hare's nest in the strawberry field and I immediately destroyed it. the hare was living on the carrot stalks. There's a bird's nest on our birdhouse. The mother has been incubating for weeks and the master is carrying food. I pulled the window curtains so we wouldn't disturb the couple, which is quite shy. I think it's a siskin's nest. They're not songbirds, their voice is like a whisper, and their one-word chirp conversation focuses only on the most important tasks. The whole day has been cloudless blue sky, a real summer Pentecostal weather. When Jürgen didn't have a car with us, we once took the whole family on a bicycle trip 'over the river to the trees'. After we got across the river, Jürgen's tire blew out. Luckily, We had the patching tools with me and we got over the surprise in fifteen minutes. I found a rock on the road with a very beautiful and clear fossilized black mussel, on the other side there is still a small garbled fossile plant. It is flint. Ask Onerva how old it could be. My pen refused to continue yesterday. In a week there is the Finnish Midsummer celebration, which is not celebrated in Germany. Jürgen will not come for three weeks, so I am just with the children. Past Midsummer celebrations just come to mind and that too, you can relive some of the atmosphere. Reinhard has had a long-term cough and runny nose. When it did not start to get better on its own, I was already at the doctor with him. I thought it was whooping cough, but it is not that severe. Silja has a constant of hay fever. That time will soon be over, though. She just has not gone to the doctor, even though I have urged her. There is always something more important for her to go to. Silja and Mirja are already crossing the threshold of youth. You can see that by the fact that they don't get home before ten in the evening. The children were already coming from a birthday parties at eight. I hear that in some places they dance more like hopping, I guess that's because no one has been yet to dance classes and besides, girls dance with girls and boys with boys. I wish you a really sweet summer party and beautiful days, mom and dad, be very well and remember me by letter again when there is new news.
Warmest regards
Liisa

Dear parents!

Heartfelt congratulations on Father's 73rd birthday. Lots of vigor and lively quality of life, albeit a bit more caution, so that it doesn't turn out like before! Hopefully, you've been doing well in these sweaty, hot July days. It's been really hot for a change. Almost every day last week was over +35. The children also started to stay indoors as it was over +42 in the sun. The rooms heated up to +27, and it was quite something when you started to sweat next to the juicer too. The excellent strawberry crop is almost over. The berries were small but sweet, and there were no moldy ones at all. Now the raspberries are on the rise, Jürgen demands to preserve them according to my mother-in-law's recipe. Those berries from Särkisalo that Mom cooked last summer were reputedly much better than the jams I developed. That's true though. I always use Opekta in the mix, as the cooking time is only a couple of minutes. This year then, I've been cooking for an hour. Did my estimation hit the mark? Now I've been cooking together with a small batch of strawberries. With red currants, I got 10 liters of juice. The black ones are not quite ripe yet and now they have to wait over next week since Jürgen and I are making a trip all the way to Austria.

The matter is such that Jürgen was asked to an Austrian chemical fiber factory as a research manager and we are going to familiarize ourselves with the situation. Whether anything comes of it, in any case, I wanted to come along because Jürgen once goes by car and I have never been in that part of the world. We don't take the kids for the ride because it's mostly sitting in the car. We will spend the night near Obernburg and one night in Austria near Salzburg on the edge of Attersee in Lenzing. The company's name is even Lenzing, could that be something for Lenz, right when the name already has so much similarity. Jürgen's summer vacation starts next Tuesday. Then he comes home, and on Wednesday afternoon, we leave for our trip. The children are among themselves; Silja, Mirja, and Anja share the work among themselves (but there might be terrible arguing (children's slang word suukopa: that individuals engage in verbal combat with each other) all the time when they get along poorly with each other).

Speaking of work, both the big ones were bossing Anja around and Anja was grumbling and crying, just as reluctant to work as everyone else. In the kitchen, they have had to cook quite often this summer. I myself am lazy in that task so I try to lure others into that work. On hot days, we almost always ate potato salad. Silja made the mayonnaise sauce, Mirja peeled and diced the potatoes and I got the lettuce, washed and chopped it into the mix or then we just ate scrambled eggs, which Silja also chose as her specialty. Mirja made the desserts - vanilla jelly or chocolate jelly directly from the bag into cold milk without boiling it ready. Anja laid the table. Today we ate pancakes, also fried by the girls.

Anja has completed 2 Swimming Badges this week. First, she jumped from a one-meter diving board and swam for 1/4 hour. The second performance was a jump from a height of three meters and half an hour of swimming. Silja and Mirja also completed a swimming badge last week. It had various requirements: diving a length of 10m and 3.5m deep, from where rings were brought. Then you had to swim quickly and drag a person unable to swim 50m. Reinhard's girls always take him along, so he gets to go in the water every day. He splashes around with the help of a float ring. I never bought a ring for the girls because I thought they would never learn to swim that way. I thought, taught by Anja's watermelon (Reinhard is just as timid in the water), that you can go against your principles for once. Of course, it's dangerous for a boy to swim with a ring at a depth where his feet can't reach the bottom. If the air suddenly comes out of the ring, he will of course drown. When you think of the countless possibilities of accidents that a child has in life, you can never actually stop being afraid for a moment. It's best not to think, but trust even the smallest fear and caution, because the afraid usually doesn't perform reckless stunts. And if you don't dare let a child ever test their wings, of course, they won't learn anything.

The sweet peas are blooming and fragrant. The garden needs to be watered when it is dry. The lawn has already burnt completely brown. I am currently sitting in the garden. We just played badminton with Silja. I was recently at the gynaecologist before we cancelled the health insurance (Jürgen gets 70 percent of the doctor's costs back as a state official, so we no longer need to pay insurance premiums) I took advantage of the free cancer check-up. The doctor found no cancer, but some kind of harmless tumor, which does not need to be urgently removed. I was annoyed that I did not go for the check-up earlier. I would have had it removed in winter already. And it wouldn't have cost anything. But I don't like going to the doctor myself. In the summer, I don't want to go to the hospital unless I have to. I will probably have it removed only in November. By then, Muutti will be closer and can come and take care of the family for a week. The windows are now in place in our house, as well as water and heating pipes.

We should be able to move on September 15th. Last Sunday we chose the colors and wallpapers. Jürgen was visiting home and brought a wallpaper book for Silja and Mirja when he came. We got the apartment from the family of one of Jürgen's colleagues. They have three children and their own house. However, Jürgen is also going to Neumünster when the girls start school to prepare for the autumn term, so the children are certainly not left without care. They are now going to girls school. It happens that this school is right next to Jürgen's school. And we thought it was best for that reason, because he can quite often take them to school in the mornings. There would have been a co-educational school in Neumünster, but it happens to be elsewhere. Of course, we would have been more in favor of co-education, but let them try a girls school now. Who knows, we may move to Austria after a few years. That would be worse for the children than a girls school.

How far is the Lasse's building? Would Päivi be interested in my old maternity dress (skirt plus jacket)? I saw it again while cleaning cupboards and thought about sending it. However, it's more of a wintery dress, and if Päivi is due in September, I suppose it's unnecessary. I also have maternity bras. Reinhard is in a questioning phase: What's the purpose of cleaning the bathtub? Why does it need to be clean? What kind of bacteria is it? Why are the clouds not on the ground? Why don't I grow breasts? Apparently, he learns something by asking, and those pictures of bacteria made a big impression. He definitely doesn't want to go to the hospital since he had a bad experience from the stiching of his forehead wound. "They drilled into my forehead" That memory won't fade quickly. Now it's getting cold sitting outside. Here the mosquitoes don't bother you during the day, they are only there at night in the bedroom and their buzzing doesn't let you sleep properly. Have a really nice summer days and a good strawberry season!
Greetings to all vacationers who come home! .. and once again happy birthday to your birthday on 14.7.

Liisa

PS. I dreamt about mom last night. It was very vivid and even when I got up in the morning, I still saw mom in front of my eyes.

Heinsberg , 19.8.73
Bye bye!
Many thanks to mother for the letter. You can imagine that quite a stone fell from my heart when I read the letter, when I heard about father's countless activities and the hard day in the hot field, which no heart patient could endure, it went without saying that it was already clear that his condition had improved again and that caution had probably been forgotten. These devastatingly hot days are starting to strain everyone, Anja is suffering from repeated episodes of nosebleeds. Yesterday it took four hours before it stopped at all, and the day before that 11 handkerchiefs and two diapers were needed to stop the bleeding. I had to keep watch all night, so that the episode wouldn't happen again due to a careless movement. Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor with him anyway, this hot weather seems to just continue. Maybe the polyp removal has left some weak spots in the mucous membrane. Silja's nose is also constantly bleeding, but it stays within reasonable limits. There are only three of us at home now, this morning Silja and Mirja started off towards the new school, led by Jürgen. Yesterday was spent packing. 21.8. I ran out of time for that on Sunday, because I remembered that those blackberries by the railway line had to be picked on Sunday when the trains weren't running. I was there yesterday too, when I finally got around to it, and the berries are so darn sweet this summer too. Then of course they have to be treated, and the rest of the time has been spent running to the doctor with Anja. As I thought, the blood vessels in one nostril were cauterized. Anja felt so bad afterwards that we had to rest at the post office before she could sit on her bike. Last week we would have had a car available, but of course we didn't need it then. In two weeks we will cauterize the other nostril and in the meantime we will also treat the pus in the sinuses. Sometimes, of course, I had to go to the hospital to get an X-ray and today it took a very long time to see the doctor. I was already terrified when I had left Reinhard in the care of the neighbour's girl, they don't like to take extra people into crowded waiting rooms. Luckily, he had found his way to his godmother's house when his mother started to get sick. Jürgen is now in an apartment in Neumünster and the girls are supposed to be happy with that family, they're not really homesick types, it was always more fun when they got to visit, and when Jürgen is around, they don't feel completely abandoned by everyone. They quickly get to know children of the same age and there are three in that family.

Jürgen, on the other hand, had been struggling to get a precise moving date. The contractor seems to have let the reins loose and he is now having to pay for it, because since we have been promised that we will be able to move on 15.9. and the house will only be finished on 21.9., he will have to pay for the storage of our belongings for that period. So it seems fairly certain that our belongings will be packed here on 13-14.9. and then we will live with Mutti if the house is not ready yet. The advantage of that is that I can go and clean the already finished floors, the parquet is done last and then it doesn't even need to be cleaned, but it would be nice to have the other floors and windows clean for use. There is enough to do here too, we have to store as much garden products as possible. The Mirabelles and plums are just about to ripen and the beetroot should also be canned, they are then so ready to be put into use and there are no waste rates, who knows what the new cellar is like, probably damp at least in the first winter. Although the groundwater there is only three meters deep, the cellar does not need any special sealing. Jürgen's summer holiday started with pretty bad weather, we went swimming a few times in Holland on the North Sea, twice we burned our skin really badly, it goes much faster at sea than here inland. In really bad weather we first went to museums, visited The Hague and Brussels and got to know the Gothic town halls of Leuven and Middelburg, a whole 5000 more kilometres were added to the odometer, when we take into account the trip to Austria, then the children started school, Silja and Mirja were here first, at Jürgen's will, and then the weather only improved to be great. It was unspeakably beautiful and hot for over a week, but we only got to the beach in the afternoon. We even found a new swimming spot at the suggestion of our neighbours, because the old ones had raised their entrance fee to an unsocial height for such a large family, a whole 2.- DM per person and half for the children. The juices have been selling like hotcakes, that we really have to try our best to fill the stores with blackcurrants again. Even such a trip to the North Sea was made entirely with our own food, even though we left home at seven in the morning and didn't return until nine in the evening. It's very good to travel towards Holland now, because in recent years good motorways have been built there, so it took us 2 hours and a quarter one way.

I'm not quite as enthusiastic a long-distance traveler when it comes to going to the seaside, Anja and Reinhard agree with me that swimming in the lake is also fun, but Jürgen, Silja and Mirja enjoy the waves. In my opinion, the entire North Sea smells unpleasant these days. The water is certainly much dirtier than it was on the Danish coast a few years ago, and they won't attract holidaymakers for long if nothing is done to clean the water. It's no wonder that people from Central Europe are starting to flock to Finland, where there is still clean water. To do something new, we started collecting mussels from the beach. Anja had gotten some canned mussels from Aggie's and liked them. Mirja also dared to try them, but Silja didn't think mussels were edible. Jürgen and I ate most of them, they taste like seafood to people who eat mushrooms. - Has that surveyor been to Särkisalo to measure our plot? This would be interesting to know, because we haven't received anything official from there. The severe drought has already stripped many trees of their leaves. It's starting to feel like autumn when the leaves rustle underfoot, but otherwise there's enough of the brightness and warmth of autumn and summer. It's only been cold in the mornings, the garden flowers are wilting in the drought and the lawns are all burnt brown. This summer, no one seems to be watering the lawns, it would be pointless to waste water. The good thing is that you don't have to mow them or listen to the buzz of your neighbours' lawnmowers. How have you been enduring the heat? How far along is the Lasse building now? Have you been there to see it? The fact is that in three weeks we'll be shaking the dust of Heinsberg off our feet for good. I don't even know the new address yet, but I'll let you know as soon as Jürgen finds out. Our new street doesn't even have a name yet. Possibly the mail will only arrive at the address:
2351 Willingrade / Neumünster
it's just a small village after all. We don't have a telephone, at least not at first, I don't know if we'll even get one. So this time, I'll hear from you, good health to everyone Greetings to the whole family, always in my thoughts but rarely at the typewriter or pen
Liisa

Willingrade 1.10.73
Heippa hei,
and happy greetings from under our own roof. Half a month has already passed in a whirlwind, we have been busy adjusting and settling in and working hard. We thought we already knew the ropes of moving thoroughly, but we didn't know that moving into our own new house is something completely different from moving into someone else's finished apartment. The move itself went quite smoothly, the movers took care of the packing and of course carrying the belongings inside was also their job. Jürgen and I managed to complete the most important preparatory work across the sacred region, so that on Monday at noon the guests drove away. There was a bit of a bit of initial stiffness, when not everyone had finished everything, the doorbell was missing and one or two other small things, but they were also done within a week. The worst thing is still the lack of wall cabinets, the carpenter who makes them is busy with other work until at least the middle of this month and in the meantime we still have to search for linens in boxes and suitcases. Last week there was the actual handover ceremony of the house, where possible defects were noted, which the builder will still fix before the final payment is made. The plastering is a little crooked here and there. The worst surprise was that the dimensions of the kitchen were a little smaller than in the drawings, and for this reason the kitchen table, which we had ordered as a special order, did not fit in the kitchen at all, but became my desk in the basement room, where there is a washing machine, iron and sewing machine + Jürgen's tool shed. But otherwise we are satisfied, the house is nice to look at and comfortable to live in. Of course, there is more running around in the rooms, which I was a little afraid of, than before, but on the other hand, the floors are lower than in the old-fashioned rooms in Heinsberg, so I haven't even gotten muscle pains from it like I sometimes did in Heinsberg, when I used to run between the floor and the basement. Jürgen hung the lamps in place right away and then we waited a bit with the curtains, but when Mutti and Onkel Gotthard came for their first visit on Saturday, they had to be hung up in a hurry, and with the whole family involved, it was done in no time. Reinhard became my mother's milk-picker in the mornings, because the nearest shop (and the only one in the whole village) is right next door and there is so little traffic on the road that I dare to send him alone. Apart from the butcher's, where you can buy meat, there are no other ways to get rid of your money than to go into town. Since Jürgen and the girls are there almost every day, I don't even have to go shopping myself anymore. It saves a lot of time. And that's what I needed to start the garden. Unfortunately, I couldn't take as much of the old garden with me as I had originally planned, because the drought was so severe that I couldn't take any of the larger plants that still had leaves with me. I dug up a few grape bushes anyway, and they actually arrived well. It started to rain here pretty soon, and the plants got the best planting.

The ground was so dry that when the wind blew, the yard was dusty. The ground here is fine sandy soil and the little garden soil we thought was also just as dry. In addition to my own seedlings, I got a little bit of strawberry soil from my new neighbor's lady. We are in such a small village that there is a lot of curiosity about new residents. On Saturdays and Sundays, quite a crowd of people wander around here to inspect us and the neighbors' new buildings. Without hesitation, they ask where we come from and what we are. Then we explain our own lives so we don't end up being strangers on either side. On Sunday we were at "church" - I have to put church in quotes, because it was the dance hall of the only dome in the village, the cheerfully colorful decoration on the ceiling was from the last celebration and the whole hall was probably a hundred years old, at least that's what it looked like in its barren wooden dress. But the hall was full of people from the village and the whole family had to sit on the side benches. Our intention was to register Silja and Mirja for confirmation, we probably wouldn't have gone there otherwise, but it must have made a good impression on the villagers, because just as we were about to sit down to dinner at noon, the owner of the largest farm in the village appeared at our place for a kind of welcome visit, and immediately stated that they wanted us to belong to the village and not just be there. He was a great conversationalist, had been in Finland during the war, like so many others, and immediately got excited to suggest that the village choir contact the choir from my home village. Unfortunately, this local is of quite modest standing, as we noted in the church, where the choir sang several times, but you couldn't tell him that straight away. Anja was the first to make friends. Silja and Mirja have been looking for people their own age, but those who go to middle school or high school here are all in Bad Segeberg and not in Neumünster, like Silja and Mirja. Let's hope that they get to know some of their own age in the confirmation school. There are certainly some, we heard that when we went to a farmer's house to get potatoes. There are 7 farms in the village. Potato cultivation is a priority. Rickert, the owner of the largest farm, said that he has 20 hectares of potatoes. He also has pigs and 80 cows. The locals call him a big farmer. Half of the village's residents seem to be named Rickert and that is also the name of Anja's teacher. In addition, there are many immigrants here from Pomerania and other eastern parts that remained in Poland. In fact, they are a minority in the village and will actually make up an even smaller part of the village's residents in the future, when all the planned new buildings have been built. Right now, there are 3 buildings around us that are in the process of being completed and two that have just been started. Reinhard goes to kindergarten twice a week in the mornings, which is not really a kindergarten, because it is only run by an almost qualified kindergarten teacher, always with a mother, and sometimes it is my turn too, when I have been here a little longer. The post office, doctor and bank are a few kilometers away, it takes about half an hour by bicycle, but it takes almost ten minutes by car. The mail is brought by car and delivered by the postman on his Volkkar from door to door. Our address is:
2351 Willingrade / Neumünster
Am Kamp

Jürgen has also been busy with yard work. We drove coarse gravel and kerbstones and he has made roads around the house, to the compost and to the future garage. There will be a terrace next to the living room and the rest and then nature will take care of it. We were already looking for fruit trees and shrubs and ornamental plants and a few spruce seedlings for the garden, they will be brought in three weeks, when the actual planting season begins. This rain has already made the lawn green up and it looks like it will have to be weeded out before anyone dares to sow any grass. I planted the beginning of a hedge on the edge of the road from the seedlings I brought with me from Heinsberg. Jürgen estimates that in ten years there will probably be a hedge there, just kidding, he will have enough cutting in five years. By the way, the name Willingrade comes from the words "Wilhelms Rohdung" = Wilhelm's rampage. As I may have already mentioned, a Stone Age dwelling was found on the site of our house when the foundations were being dug. Maybe it's the original Ville who started the settlement here. In any case, I carefully examine every stone that comes up during the excavation to see if it is of any historical interest. The work is therefore going a little slowly, because there are almost as many stones here as on Melassuo Hill. Mutti and I would need baking paper. Mutti had bought a roll of German baking paper, although she immediately suspected that it would not be of Finnish quality, and so the whole pastry got stuck in the paper. I would be happy to take a batch of four rolls, because in Heinsberg I gave a sample to a neighbor's lady and she was so enthusiastic about it that I would be happy to send her the whole roll, even with the tail cover. Such a small package of a roll would arrive by postman, if you write on it "paper, Papier" as the content. I would be grateful if you could send it to me. But there's no need to send it by airmail, there's no point in that, because I haven't run out of paper yet. I've been baking buns more often lately, since Jürgen has lost so much weight, he should eat a little more.

We almost always have afternoon coffee together now, because Jürgen's working hours have been reduced, so we see him almost more at home than at work. Besides, the climate here is obviously better, Jürgen's asthma is much, much better, it's hardly noticeable anymore. I wish there were no more attacks. I'm glad about that, because in Heinsberg it just kept getting worse and worse, and even when I last visited home it started as soon as I got there. Who knows, my mother might come to visit here, since the healthiness of the climate has already been tested. Päivi is starting to reach the end of her waiting period. Where is she going to give birth, in Turku or Masku. Is there a municipal hospital there? What about everyone else? I haven't received a letter from Tuulik for a long time either, everyone has a lot to do, unfortunately. It would be best if you made this a circular, because I don't have time to write very many, and the content would necessarily be exactly the same. The schoolchildren's grades are quite variable, the highs and lows are part of their nature, Silja and Mirja are very happy at their new school, but Mirja still got a four in maths and Silja got an five in French, which really depressed her. Silja doesn't like her French teacher anyway, who is usually represented by a substitute. They both like the maths teacher. The teaching level is reportedly not very high, but the demands are still quite high, so self-study is a plus. Anja immediately got involved in the inter-school swimming competitions as a representative of her class. According to her speeches, she was second to last, but there were only three or four children in the class who could swim, so she is still quite ahead of the pack. I think that's the end of my grades this time. I hope you have already got the potatoes and beets up and the interior windows in place. Those are always the biggest and hardest jobs in the fall. We now have double-glazed windows everywhere except in the hallway. They can't be separated and the insides never need to be washed, so they're not much of a hassle. We'll see how the winter tests us. I wish you both the best of luck, and a warm kiss on both cheeks
Best regards
Liisa

Dear Mother! Neumünster, 21.10.197x

A week ago we left you alone at home, all day long during this sad time our children's thoughts are with you and of course with their grandfather. I only saw the coffin, that's why my father is still vivid in my thoughts and I can still hear his voice. It's hard to get used to the idea that he is finally out of reach. For me, the family has usually only lived in my thoughts for so long that I may not realize their real absence like the rest of you. It's just so hard to write when the tears start to flow immediately. I have to go get a handkerchief. For you, change in life is real and difficult, no matter how independent you are, after more than 40 years of living together, adapting and adapting and living with another soul in mind becomes a habit. I believe that you, dear Mother, have such a strong character that you will survive this change too. If you don't feel like you can do it alone, come to us children. How I would be happy if you came. In any case, we are preparing for you to come with Tuulikki (and Per-Erik) for Easter.

Unfortunately, the post office hasn't brought me the last two Perniönseudun Lehti at all, the ones with the articles about my father have not arrived. Maybe one of my neighbours still has them, because I would like to be able to read to my children what has been written about their grandfather. I will write to the Heinsberg post office and ask where they are. Of course, some new postman, who doesn't know about our move, has thrown them in the postbox at Oberbrucherstrasse 74, and that's where they are. Although now there should be new residents there who could return them to the post office. There were bricklayers working here when I came. There has been some difficulty with the brickwork. The mistakes made in the brickwork should either be corrected or the costs should be reduced. Fortunately, Jürgen takes care of these things. When I was at the doctor's in Neumünster with Reinhard, I wrote you a card that accidentally had too few stamps on it. I'm sorry if you had to redeem it. Fortunately, the doctor was of the opinion that there was nothing wrong with his condition, the tonsils would just cover the opening of the hardened ear canal and thus give him the hearing problems. I am a little afraid of the surgery on Tuesday, because he will be able to return home immediately, and I them have to figure out the traffic in Neumünster for the first time with a sick child in the back seat. I haven't heard anything from Päivi. Has the happy addition to the family already happened? On Friday, our garden material arrived. Ten fruit trees, berry bushes, and raspberry bushes, 40 rose bushes and ornamental bushes, 3 spruces and 3 pines. It rained like crazy as we started planting trees. We didn't get them in the ground on Friday, only the fruit trees, then darkness came. It was freezing at night and the sky was starry. On Saturday we planted all day, and even then we couldn't finish, because the neighbor's people offered manure and Jürgen started to transport it. They gave it away for free and were happy to get rid of it, while we were happy to get the soil conditioner for our sandy soil.

They did predict gloomily that apple trees wouldn't thrive here and I think, we have planted them too deep. But today it rained terribly again. We were wet as dogs when we finally got everything planted by noon. Silja was in Hamburg alone at Mutti's for the weekend. She traveled there and back alone. Mutti picked her up and brought her to the station. She said it was really nice to watch TV and then they went together to the museum, though when we go to the museum with her, there's no end to her headaches and tired legs. Anja sat all day today doing her handicraft. She always has so much to play around with that she never wants to finish. She started the craft in Heinsberg last fall, and now it's finally finished. Anja is so childish that she starts the work enthusiastically, does a little and praises herself lavishly. Then the handicraft remains lying in a corner, and even though I try to encourage her, she cannot get herself motivated again for continuing the handicraft. Here, too, her newly gained friend Julia has dogs and ponies and cats, cows and calves, and if Julia isn't with us, Anja is certainly at Julia's place. She does her homework just barely. Sometimes she should learn how to do real work. The new rug has found its place in the living room. It's very beautiful. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. No one at customs was interested in my goods, so the flower seedlings arrived safely and were put in the ground on Monday. It would be nice if they started growing.

Best regards,
Liisa

Here too, it snowed twice from the sky. I thought I put my father's portrait in my handbag, but it wasn't there anymore when I was going to show it to the family. If you still have an extra one, then this is probably mine.

Dear Mother! Willingrade, 4.11.73
thanks for your letter. The past month has been difficult for all of us and for you in different ways, there is still a lot of organizing and thinking to do. Have you now got the overall picture, what payments are still due and how things worked out financially after the new month? As you know, I am always ready to help, it is almost the only thing I can really do for you from here. As far as Tuulhattu being sold, the advertisement was not really written in a very salesman like way. Of course, you have no major worries financially. However, it may take a long time before a buyer is found. I have problems to concentrate myself onto the writing, my thoughts constantly drift into the past. How have you been, dear Mother, the silence did me good at first. I couldn't even turn on the radio to listen to the news. You were also used to a quieter life, but now you no longer wait for your father to come home in the evening and during the day. There must be a pressure there before you get used to being alone, that's how long a person feels like an orphan. It took almost two years for my mother-in-law, Aunt Grete, and Aunt Hille, and actually the hardest thing has been Aunt Grete, who doesn't have any children. They all wrote to me, as did Aggie and Uncle Gotthard. I haven't had a chance to write and thank you yet either. I should congratulate Päivi too. She hasn't written to me about it herself yet, so if it weren't for you, I still wouldn't know about the birth of the boy. Since she hasn't finished, neither have I. She must have been resting while she was in the hospital and didn't suspect that when the baby is home and you have to take care of everything yourself, there won't be any time to write. I know that for the first time, it's so stressful that it's hard to even sleep properly, even if the baby is calm and kind. But I'm glad that everything has apparently gone well. My time here this week has been spent mainly on tilling the soil. Even then, the vegetable patch that is to be planted has been turned and cleared of weed roots and stones. Yesterday and today we planted a hedge. Dear neighbours pass by and give us advice. Then you know right away what has been done in a funny way. Both neighbours also gave us samples of their carrot harvest. I must say, you rarely see such handsome people. There is a lot of life and activity here on the weekends at three construction sites. The closest we will move in is in mid-December. It has already been quite cold, with frosts at night and an east wind. I caught a bit of a runny nose, but the others have been fine. I went to the doctor about the growth and it still doesn't need to be cut out. So there will be no hospital visit. Reinhard's tonsils have healed well and maybe his hearing is a little better, but I think he still speaks too loudly. Anja's school had a parents' evening on Friday. He has a very pleasant and enthusiastic male teacher, and the classroom was new and bright. The children sit in groups of 4 at a table. The study plan also seems reasonable, they have just learned how to multiply and divide in writing. Silja and Mirja's elementary school studies were often a bit of a blur and even overloaded. As far as I know, after Pappis death, there was no need to keep an estate register, but Mutti had to declare what his estate was and its value. Because of the inheritance tax, he tried to undervalue everything possible. The only one who is really interested in high inheritance values ​​is the state. This is the only advice I can give for estate registration. Why haven't I received any more Perniönseudun magazine since the beginning of October? Good health to you,
Best regards
Liisa

Dear Mother!
I often think of you with all your sorrow and worries and even your illness, and I hope that you have already recovered. Thank you very much for your letter. Jürgen has written to you in the meantime, perhaps you have received his letter. A couple of days later he also sent a postal check in your name, which should have arrived by now. If it has not arrived, ask the post office, perhaps they tried to deliver it while you were in the hospital without success. You have forgotten one very important source of money, which my father would probably have resorted to again when the interest payment was due: namely the Perniönseudun newspaper. Try to arrange a meeting and if you are not in a good enough condition to go there yourself, then perhaps Lasse or Pekka or both of them together will be able to represent you there. I think Antti Suomela represents his mother with the same system, and I think Kalevi will represent him too. Then I also thought that maybe you don't have to pay your father's taxes or do they stand by the position that in the joint taxation of married couples, the other spouse then pays the prescribed amount. If they are from income from 1972, of course they have to be paid, but if they are advance taxes, I would try to ask the tax office before paying. This terribly stormy weather must have been bad for you. Jürgen also suffers from the constant ups and downs of the barometer. The weather has been so bad all November. We absolutely had to get the road, or driveway, to the garage ready, before the municipal building authorities or these authorities, which handles building inspections, get the papers for the finished house finally, and only then will we get the last instalment of the loan out. Yesterday it snowed and now the ground is frozen and we can't do any more than halfway, which is where we finished it. It's a shame, it's a shame. But maybe tomorrow the weather will be completely different again. Today was so beautiful, the snow covered the ground and the air was clear, not even a breath of wind. I really had to go out with Reinhard for a walk and to pull the sled. Silja also volunteered to go out in the afternoon. The weather was slippery and so far we are lucky to be able to use these roads almost alone. No one will be spreading salt on the road and ruining the sled weather. Yesterday was the first Sunday driving ban. The Rickling parish organized a bus ride for us Willingrade residents to the church service, as it was All Souls' Day and there were more people than usual. Silja really wanted to go by bicycle, but Mirja and I didn't like the suggestion, especially since the bus was free. Luckily we were in the clear because just before the church service started, it started to snow heavily and in an instant the ground was white and slippery. It was slippery even when we went, because it was freezing. We wouldn't have made it there on our bikes. The Rickling church was quite atmospheric, even though it was built at the beginning of the century, especially since outside the ivy grew around the small arched windows and inside there was a lot of dark wood. Upstairs, the gallery went around the whole church except for the altar of course, and the organ was large and had a beautiful sound. But the organist was humming such funny tunes that they didn't really seem to fit the mood of All Souls' Day. Yes, I understand very well that you visit your father's grave. He is there, even though the connection is now only of a spiritual nature. Dear father. Anja spent the weekend at Julia's, whose parents were visiting relatives. Anja smells wonderfully like a barn these days and she arranged colostrum for me too. I did exactly as you instructed and first boiled a drop of milk in a small container on the stove for almost half an hour, but then it just wouldn't curdle and I wondered what I should do so that I wouldn't be baking the oven for hours in vain. Then I decided to beat a couple of eggs into the milk to be on the safe side, but was it because of the eggs or did I bake my milk too long? In any case, it left so much whey that the children didn't really like it and so luckily I was able to eat almost all the colostrum myself. In my opinion, your cheese had more flavour. What is the reason for that? Anja thinks that the most wonderful things in the world for the daughters of the house are cows and calves, dogs and cats and ponies, there is no way she would have even come home today. I had to really push myself when she only came home to show her notebook and writing pad and wanted to sign them. She had written the best subject in the class. The topic was "I'm going shopping". Anja bought herself riding boots, since she was free to choose what she wanted to write about. The subject was good by the way, but full of spelling mistakes. Mirja is playing the role of the chief butler in the play "The Emperor's New Clothes" for the residents of the nursing home and children's home at Christmas. I have been able to sew her clothes. Because of the rehearsals, she can't get home every day until the evening. Jürgen is traveling to Austria for the second time next week at Lenzing's invitation. Here are some new pictures of our new surroundings. Keep them until others have time to see them when they come home to visit, but please send them back again sometime. I did find that picture of my father in my own handbag, so I'll send the second copy back with thanks. I'll continue in the morning as it came a little late last night. I think you should still hire cleaning help, firstly because you'll have some company for it, and secondly, you could also let the window washing go, because it's probably too much for you now. If you feel like you don't have enough money for that, I'll be happy to do it for you, you can't do anything without help, even though it might seem pointless sometimes. When you do a lot of cleaning alone, there's always spring and autumn cleaning and special jobs that you can't even do alone. Has the price of fuel oil in Finland increased in the same proportion as here? We earlier paid 17.13 pennies per liter. Now they say they've already charging 45 pennies. Luckily, we have 6,000-liter tanks, and we probably won't need to buy any more this winter, unless it gets too cold now that no amount of heating is enough. The large living room window gets so warm when the sun warms it that I often turn off the radiators. It's a south-facing window, and it actually shines all day long in the fall, when the sun goes down shorter, but in the summer it probably doesn't shine in at all, because the edge of the roof is so wide that it blocks the rays of the high sun. By the way, you asked about melon. It's a rather strange delicacy for us frugal Lenz, i.e. we once ate it in the basement restaurant of the Hamburg town hall at Uncle Gotthard's invitation. I don't think it tastes like anything now, watery. It was served chilled and sugar was put on top. Anja had had melon with thin slices of smoked ham as a starter at Aunt Grete's. More snow has fallen during the night and more cold weather has been promised. It would have melted away immediately in Heinsberg. Päivi finally wrote, but didn't even tell what the name of her son would be. I guess that's a secret too, which will only be revealed after the christening. I don't think I need any power of attorney to send to the estate registration. I've received an official invitation, but of course I'm prevented from coming. There are enough representatives there for the family without me, and when the will is clear, the whole occasion is formal, I understand. I'm bothered by rheumatism in my right elbow. I'm trying to get rid of it with hot and cold water treatment, but my blood circulation is so bad that my hands are often cold. These are probably the beginning symptoms of old age. It doesn't hurt, but some movements hurt. Reinhard's hearing is now okay again. He doesn't even scream when he speaks. It just took a long time after the treatment before the improvement was noticeable. Otherwise, the children have been healthy, they don't even have a runny nose or cough now. I'll have to stop and start working during the day, good night to you, mother dear. Don't let the gloom of autumn get you down. Things can't get any worse. You'll get through this slowly. If you need money, just write. We always have as much as you need. And maybe you'll get through other troubles when you think about how much good there has been in life.
Best regards
Liisa

Dear Mom! Willingrade, 14.12.73

Thank you for your letter. The family is now thus gathered and the youngest has visited their grandmother. Whom the baby is now looking alike? Remember to tell, Päivi herself doesn't response sufficiently to answer such curious qustions. How have you been yourself? It has been so terribly stormy still, that I'm thinking how can you bear to listen to the wind humming at nights. At least I can't sleep when it whistles, wails and rain hits heavily against the windows. I was alone with kids for 2 nights when Jürgen was traveling, and it felt so uncomfortable. Snow comes and goes, two times we've had winter with almost 20cm of snow and really good frost, built a castle out of snow blocks, and wrapped the apple trees against frost and hares, but now it's black and wet again. I am late as usual in preparing for Christmas, but full of enthusiasm as usual. I spend my free time in the Hobby cellar by the sewing machine. Mirja's pyjama shirt is ready, Silja's skirt is halfway done, and Anja's poncho is in cloth. I sewed pants for Reinhard.

I already had a guilty conscience, when I did not write to you at all, I should do handicrafts with Anja. She got mad at Mutti, when Mutti came here with Barbara so Anja went to her friend's grandmother and didn't come back until the evening. Now Anja has to make a gift for Mutti as an apology. Anja could indeed be the main character in a play like "Rasivilius Peacebreaker". The day before yesterday she took the ruler from dad's desk and broke it. No penalties, but reproaches and she forgot to place the shoe polish tube back into the correct place after she cleaned her winter boots, even after many a heartfelt urgings. She did her homework only in the evening, after being with her schoolmate all day. In the advent calendar handmade by Mutti she opened the first half of all the packages immediately and ate the candies inside. That's actually progress, a couple of years ago she did the same trick with Reinhard's advent calendar. However, the worst trick was done by Reinhard, when he hit the children's room floor with a hammer and made a dozen holes which will be forever visible...

When all this happens in a family with four children, what must it have been like with six in the mix? Mirja had her first period, so there's always something new in the family. I chatted with Jürgen about that Perniönseudun Lehti newspaper you wrote about last. Thank you, it has indeed arrived regularly now, but there's no need to necessarily subscribe for next year, unless free copies are given to family members. Jürgen ordered me Suomen Kuvalehti as a Christmas gift, so its arrival is guaranteed, but about the newspaper you wrote that maybe it could be completely abandoned. Dad occasionally talked about selling his shares. Jürgen asked what the value of the share is, if it has a par value, or when the newspaper company was founded, did each person participate in the foundation with a certain sum, nominal or actual, and is there a written record of it somewhere? This sum would naturally need to be the base when selling and then you could add, depending on the success and income of the newspaper, an estimated or calculated amount to make a profit. If you really wanted to know the financial situation of the newspaper, we thought that someone would have to go through the newspaper's accounts. Surely accounting has already been done due to tax declaration.

I thought maybe asking Tarmo Ranta would be an idea, if he would like to do it since he with his experience as an auditor understands these things, would be impartial and reliable, and perhaps a slightly business-minded person and a long acquaintance of daddy and you, who might do it, because such a task is surely laborious. Then you could offer your share to Antti and Kalevi to buy together, or threaten to sell it to a third person interested in the matter. Maybe that way the price could be increased. I have no idea how the potential losses of a newspaper company are paid; whether you would have to use your own funds or participate in paying off any debt if there actually was any, not just in accounting. It may be that if the page count of the newspaper is increased but advertisement space stays the same thus making the income proportionally decrease in comparison to the costs, the financial situation of the newspaper weakens, even if it still apparently thrives, the subscriber and advertiser numbers are fine, but the cost of printing paper and postage increases faster than the number of subscribers grows. These are just our thoughts about the newspaper and I wouldn't know to say whether you would sell or whether you would be better off staying a shareholder. Of course, it's alarming that dividends are distributed a little or not at all and for that reason, before making a decision, I would find it sensible to clear up the real financial situation of the newspaper with the power of an expert. And I would suggest you turn to Tarmo Rantanen.

Our Christmas gift leaves here at the same time as this letter. It is as impersonal as last year, as it is just a cheque, but perhaps you'll order a newspaper for next year or you'll buy a Christmas book you like. We hope in any case that you will enjoy reading it or if you need it for something else, then the decision is completely yours. Lonely sad mom, we here are thinking of you warmly and wish you a good Christmas, despite the longing and taking into account our own conscience.
I know that you are not alone at Christmas. Whether you are at home or at Pekka's or Päivi's,
a heartfelt Christmas greeting to everyone.

From Liisa, Jürgen and the kids.

Dear Mother! Willingrade, 1.1.74

A year old sinks into the grave with its joys and sorrows. Oh, if the beginning year would be blessed by the creator. With warm thoughts we wish you a better new year, beautiful days. For mental refreshment, visits from children and grandchildren to share kisses with grandma, joyful moments in between lonely days and times when it is easy to breathe, joyful moments of bird on the table, kindness that warms. Thank you for your thick letter. I should have written back immediately about Suomen Kuvalehti, but as I mentioned in my own letter that Jürgen has already ordered it for me, I thought that perhaps you were up to date and changed or canceled your own order, as having two copies of the same magazine is a bit too much.

I didn't think you would order it for me anymore, knowing your money worries it would have only been adding to those. I have already received an invoice for my own order and it needs to be paid by January 8, so at least our order has gone through if you can't cancel yours anymore. Which would obviously be the best solution, you could order it for yourself. So thank you for the Perniönseudun newspaper, dear mother, that was already too much from your side. Of course, it's nice to look through the newspaper from my side, but this time you should just think more of yourself, or rather we should think of you, if and when there are still difficulties, remember to write about your needs. We can always afford to spend something for you.

The rising heating costs will certainly be passed on to the real consumers, that is, the tenants, by the local homeowners, as it should be. I don't know what kind of lease agreement Tuulhatu's residents have, but if you have to pay the increased heating costs yourself, I think such lease agreements should be rewritten. Here, a friend of ours said that his landlady had raised the heating cost from 70 marks per month to 200 marks. A third of our oil has been used, so we believe we will make it until spring. However, we heat sparingly, and maybe because of this we have had some difficulties with humidity. Wallpapers around corners tend to get moldy and we must be careful to dry them with a hairdryer.

At Christmas, it was calm and foggy, moderately warm and of course snowless. We attended church on Christmas Eve in the afternoon, then the children went to the neighbor's to sing their thanks for able to watching TV there. We got to cut our own chrismas tree from the forest and that was the newest thing during this Christmas. We sang and played as usual while Silja, Anja and Reinhard recited poems. Mirja read her own story. Mum arrived only on the first Christmas Day with her presents. She spent Christmas Eve with a friend who recently became a widow. On Boxing Day, she left again, Mirja and Reinhard went with her for two days to Hamburg. Reinhard was full of enthusiasm because he got to travel by train. He had no homesickness, only Jürgen and I missed the children. We have been feeling quite holiday-like now as Jürgen and the children are on vacation at the same time. Jürgen goes back to work tomorrow and to his preparations in Neumünster, the children's school starts only on 9th of January, we have slept long in the morning, getting up only after eight, and otherwise been relaxed, except that last Saturday we had guests. In the evening we were invited to this new neighbor who moved in for Christmas. The children were with us except for Reinhard who was put to bed. Anja stayed up until three at night and was quite alert. Around midnight we were outside watching the rockets flying.

And we saw how in the neighboring village there was a strangely big fire, so the fire brigade was immediately alerted and it got extinguished quite soon. Anja knew today that someone's barn and hay shelter had burned. Our neighbor, who is in the insurance industry, grimaced, saying that again someone's old shack is burning, demonstrating how they then come to report damages pretending to be unfortunate, but in their hearts they are satisfied, as the insurance money will be used to build a new and better shack. And first a small trip to the Mediterranean. This is reportedly, and we have already experienced it, often the case and always the oldest buildings are the ones burning. These locals sure know how to be crafty. I'm currently reading a book by Hans Fallada, I don’t know if it has been published in Finnish, but the German title is "Bombs and Bourgeoisie"

Mom turns 70 on January 11th. She is hosting a reception in the evening, and Jürgen and I are going alone. They didn't want the children to come this time. I read her your card, and she asked me to thank you and send greetings. We just got wardrobes for Anja and Mirja's rooms before Christmas on Thursday, which we had been waiting for since the move. I was almost losing my nerves with those cardboard boxes. It was a close call that they wouldn't have come even for Christmas. Then the moving company came to pick up its boxes on Friday, which were filling up the basement. Jürgen still covered the basement floor with textile tiles on Saturday and Sunday, so that my craft room is now looking nice and tidy.
That was a lot of Christmas present at once. Jürgen also surprised with a new anorak. Our girls (in my size) were supposed to get skis for Christmas, but there were no ski boots or bindings in stock, they had to be ordered first and the order didn't arrive for Christmas. Well, there wasn't anything else at the moment either, it is a bit colder, slightly below 0 so there is not much need for skis.
Did you manage to go to the christening and see Lasse's new home.
Eagerly waiting to hear new family news,
best regards,
Liisa

Mother dear! Willingrade 13.1.1974

Tuulikki's message about the unfortunate slip only arrived the other day. It must have been slippery to fall so badly despite being careful. It must be your first bone fracture, so much one has to experience in his life. I hope it heals well, so that it doesn't matter, whether it's left or right, we need both hands for almost everything. Or one has to use your teeth to help, as Tuulikki wrote. We haven't had any snow at all, it's really mild again and the wind is southerly, maybe it will be the whole winter. New Year's Eve was spent at the neighbors' and since then it's been peaceful, except this weekend, when many things happened at once. On Friday we were at Mutti's 70th birthday party, we met old acquaintances from Hamburg, I mean Mutti's acquaintances and the evening went nicely. The children were home alone, because they hadn't been invited. The Landbeck children were there and seemed to be bored enough, at least Susu, my goddaughter, was smoking cigarettes to pass the time. Mutti is somewhat terrified, but what can you do when the parents allow it? Last night we had a Finnish lady for coffee, who is a secretary at Jürgen's school. She has only been there since the beginning of December and Jürgen suggested that I invite her to our home. She seems like a nice acquaintance, we have similar hobbies, even though I am already a somewhat sour and moldy housewife. She is having some difficulties with her only daughter, who has probably had to suffer emotionally from being thrown back and forth between her Finnish and German grandparents. Apparently this mixed marriage is not really wanted and accepted by either parents, and in fact the child is a product from earlier affairs. While she is also at work, there's really no one left she can rely on.

Funny enough, Mrs. Kirchhoff studied in Turku a couple of years ago, and lived with Hannele Tuominen. Today we "celebrated" Reinhard's birthday. Mutti came to visit and the day just flew by. There weren't many gifts for the after-Christmas party, a couple of books, crayons, and a couple of new cars, but Reinhard was happy when they sang to him and threw him in the air. He was the hero of the day and was enjoying himself. Thank to Anja, the girls have now found real horses and can ride at Aunt Julia's. Today was their first time, Silja fell off the horse right away, but at least she didn't hurt herself. I'm a little scared of this equestrian sport, but if you're not scared yourself, what can you do? They get proper guidance in their "noble" hobby, after all, it's a change from sitting at school. The house is really old-fashioned, with its stables, haystacks, chickens clucking in the yard, geese swimming in a puddle of rainwater, goats and everything. Reinhard found an old tractor that he "drove" while others were riding. Dirt everywhere, but the riding mistress herself made a great impression. - Tuulikki promised to write again soon and tell you about it. Jürgen asked about those photos. If you want to keep them, I'll order new ones. We didn't get any new ones taken at Christmas. So what's it like at Lasse's? Will there be enough water? Hearty greetings to everyone and to you, dear Mother, in all your current difficulties with your bone fracture, I hope you have helping hands around you. Good health,
Liisa

Send Thanks to Tuulikki for the letters and stamps.

Dear Mom, Willingrade 26.1.74

Gray rain clouds cover the January sky, the hopes for a snowy winter seem to be permanently lost. Brighter mornings and afternoons suggest that we are heading towards spring again. Your hand is probably soon to be free of its cast, I guess the annoying healing of the bone will gradually begin so you will probably be relieved when you get over that trouble too.

A bomb in the form of a telegram dropped in our family on Friday for Jürgen. They announced from Lenzing that he had been chosen for the position he was asked for last summer. Since the matter was of such a slow-developing nature, we had already believed for a long time that someone else had been chosen. After all, he had been there for a second visit before Christmas, and after that we wondered a lot about what to do if he were chosen there. To my surprise, Jürgen decided to accept the post if it were offered to him. We are all actually against it, because we have just been settling in here, and have just recovered from the trouble caused by the move. However, there is still one 'but' in the matter, namely if Glanzstoff is not willing to let Jürgen out of his non-compete clause earlier.

The gentlemen of Lenzing were indeed of the opinion that Glanzstoff would not pose an obstacle, but they had not yet negotiated. For Jürgen, of course, this is an opportunity of his life that he can't just pass up, even though it will mean a lot of work. The first few years have to be dedicated to work preparation, as the current official, who has had a heart attack, will still manage the research leadership for some time. Apparently, the familiarization period also includes trips all the way to America. The kids are horrified that they have to go to an Austrian school, and besides, they have to start studying Latin immediately, because in Austria, the first foreign language is Latin and in here it's English and French.

And now we're thinking about leaving all this and our beloved home. The first and most important consequence is that you absolutely have to come here this spring because it is surely the last opportunity for us. Austria is such a long journey that you probably will never go. The journey with everything is our birthday gift to you so that you will not have any expenses from that side. The most important thing is to arrange Tuulikki's vacation appropriately. She promised to accompany you and now it really comes true. It's best that you arrange the departure now and book a travel ticket as there may be more passengers in the spring. Guess if we lost the night's sleep after that telegram, it feels somehow crucial and cut off, on the other hand, it was nice that Jürgen was successful, but in fact, none of us want to leave here anymore. I suppose we have to rent the house out, we're certainly not going to sell it.

There had been talk that Lenzing is building us a new house. We have been thinking about traveling there with the family in mid-February so that the kids can get some concrete picture, it helps. At the moment, Silja and Anja are sick with fever and sore throat, and Reinhard has indeed been coughing. We have not told Mutti about Lenzing yet, it will be a big shock for her. She was so in favor of our move to Neumünster.

I should tell Kirko again about Suomen Kuvalehti because we have received two issues for all of January, otherwise they will still tax you for it. Jürgen has already paid for our order now. I read in Perniö Local Newspaper about Tähkävuori's death and thought that he was the next after our father from those of us who gathered then. No one suspected it at the time.

Päivi sent some pictures of Sami. Sure enough, he looks like Reijo and is a boy who looks at the world and the photographer very attentively. The name Sami suits him well.

Best greetings,
Liisa

Willingrade, 17.2.74
Dear Mother!
After returning from our trip yesterday, there is something new to tell here. The main point was already clear in the last letter, and this trip only confirmed the fact that we are going somewhere else again. Jürgen will start at Lenzing on the first of September as acting research director. The salary is not very high, at least at first, but that is not Lenzing's fault, Jürgen was allowed to propose his salary himself and perhaps that is why he was chosen because he did not demand such sky-high salaries, because the salary and cost levels in Austria are said to be slightly lower than those in Germany. He almost asked for what he received from Glanzstoff, which is higher than what we currently enjoy. The salary was not the main thing for Jürgen, but that he could get a job that was both interesting and also more responsible. And as soon as the current person in charge retires, the responsibility and salary will hopefully increase. Austria is not quite as fast-paced as Germany, somehow Austria is more like Finland in everything. Politically, the conditions are similar to Finland, and I hear the factory doesn't have the same frantic pace as Glanzstoff. But you only see how it really is when you start working. For us, it will be a long time coming, because they hadn't gotten any further than the garage in their construction work. It will be at least a year before we move. The advantage of that is that we can still decide everything about the building ourselves, and Jürgen first made sure that it would be at least big enough and its own separate building, and not a terraced house, like the other apartments being built. We already saw the location of the plot, it is on a southern slope, almost above the valley. The view is of course charming, over the mountains and the lake, but the nearby roads won't guarantee a very peaceful environment like they do now in Willingrade. This winter there was only snow on the mountain tops, and the skis and sledges did not get their due this time. The children were all there to see their future home region. The school looked very new, large and purposeful, but since it was an "energy holiday", we did not meet the teachers. We ordered a Latin textbook for the girls from the bookstore, which they will now gradually have to start to get used to. The journey took more or less exactly 12 hours, I also joined in the driving this time, because it would have been too much of a task for Jürgen alone in one day. The children behaved exemplary on the journey, on the way there they made up stories for Reinhard, so everyone had a good time. On the way back, Reinhard felt unwell, but he managed to say it anyway, and I had a bag for the vomit ready, even though we didn't need them very much on our trips. We stayed in the same hotel as last summer, and we were almost the only guests. Jürgen spent almost the entire first day in Lenzing. During the day, he came to our hotel to eat with Dr. Krässig (the current head of the research), and I was also invited to the table. In the evening, the whole family stayed at Dr. Studt's (Anja and Reinhard stayed at the hotel) Dr. Studt is a former Glanzstoff man, whom Jürgen has to thank for the invitation to Lenzing. He is a member of the board, German like Dr. Krässig, and he unexpectedly visited us here in Willingrade once, when Jürgen had been elected to Lenzing. It was a sad story, because the grill wouldn't brown the chops that I had hastily procured for him properly, and they turned out so terribly tough that I could barely eat them, which of course made me terribly ashamed. Silja and Mirja knew Dr. Studt's daughter from Heinsberg, where we had once met her on a trip to the village together. Maybe that will make the girls' move a little easier, knowing that they are not the only ones who have to endure such a move. The next day, Jürgen only had to go for a medical check-up, and he was back in the morning, after which we then went to see our new plot of land (it is possible that we can buy the building for ourselves from the factory later if we want) and to Vöcklabruck, where the school is located. It is about 9 km from Seewalchen, but there is a school bus there in the mornings and the connections are better there by bus than from Willingrade to Neumünster anyway. In the afternoon we drove around the lake a bit and climbed up the mountain slope a short distance. The sun was shining beautifully, and the children saw the mountains for the first time, otherwise it was foggy and rainy. Anja, with her sharp eyes, found blue anemones that were just starting to bloom, and I saw a chamois hopping up the slope. Since there was only snow on the peaks, we decided to travel back on Saturday, otherwise we would have stayed until Sunday. Heartfelt congratulations on your birthday! Have you decided on a departure date yet? How are your hands? All the flower are pushing their heads up, and the roses have big buds. There should be no more frost. Write soon when you will come, waiting for one is a lot of fun for me. I received a copy of the will, and I will send it back to Osuuspankki in the same post. Heartfelt congratulations from the whole family and best wishes to everyone,
Liisa

Dear Mom!

Thank you for your letter. The previous one felt a bit sad and the roof tiles made me thoughtful. I wonder how expensive it would be to renew the roof, if we would do it together next summer, as everyone starts having their own experiences of building, but otherwise I think you're probably happier under your own roof than rented. The roof should have been renewed already, and I wonder if burning oil corrodes these tiles more easily than concrete roof tiles, which are probably heavier. Now we can't change to another type, which the structure might not even withstand. In such a house, there is always something that costs, but when you think that you would have to pay rent monthly, presumably you would better cope in your old one. On the other hand, you could of course also use the selling price to buy an apartment. I just think that the new one has to pay such a handsome price that you might not be able to get it with the old one. I don't know as I'm not aware of both prices. What if the garden gets a bit wild. It's also beautiful in a way. Rent that plot in Tuulhattu to a local farmer and sell the tractor at least. Don't you think it would be better that way?

That lock sure had a handsome price. You wouldn't guess when you insert the key that even opening the door has its price. I then received a letter from Tuulikki from Lapland where she starts to explain that she doesn't have time. How did she then have time to go to Lapland but Of course, it doesn't matter to us whether you come earlier or later, if the ships start to take a different route in July, which, according to our experience, takes a day and a half. We have this ship schedule for next summer and according to it, "Finnhansa" leaves at 9:00 in the morning from Helsinki and is in Travemünde the next evening at 20:30. So only one night on the ship and the other ships Finnpartner Ilmatar and Finlandia all leave from Helsinki in the evening, so the saying: arriving on the third day is too misleading (translatingproblem, reference to a Finnish proverb). "Finnpartner" leaves Helsinki at 20 and is then on the third day at 12 in Travemünde. In that case, two nights must be spent on the ship. The winter timetable is valid until the end of May and according to it all ships really need a longer travel time because they go some route through Sweden or Denmark, so the best shipping connection is from the beginning of June with Finnhansa. Then Tuulikki and Per-Erik could come together with you and you could make the return trip with Per-Erik if Tuulikki can't (or dare to) spend her summer holiday for so long. The only new thing is: can you still get travel tickets. This question must be quickly clarified and decided upon. Judging from Tuulikki's letters, June is otherwise the best time and also for Leena if she would agree to leave the only possible time. There will be no change to our trip. We leave here with Finnhansa on Wednesday July 10th and are thus in Helsinki the next day, i.e. July 11th at 20:30 and arrive Perniö at midnight as per the old habit. The return trip starts on Friday, August 9th.

However, we probably can't then consider building a summer cottage because who would leave Austria to go to a summer cottage in Finland? Enjoyment of the beach plot will then have to be left for this summer, luckily for the rest of the family. Since we had already ordered the travel tickets, Jürgen decided that he would only start in Lenzing from the beginning of September. From school point of view, of course, he could have started already from the beginning of August. So how is it then, since at the beginning of the plans was the provisional preparation of the summer cottage, we had not thought about anything but coming to Perniö for the whole vacation time. We were also thinking of camping in Särkisalo and I have already asked Lasse for a tent to borrow for that time. Now that the plans have changed in this respect, and secondly I have not heard anything from Lasse, the question follows: Will you take us fully under your responsibility for the whole month? Of course, I will arrange our food program myself, so it's no trouble for you. Päivi has invited Anja to her place and Anja has decided to go there to the cows and perhaps she can even act as a little bit of a babysitter.

Lenzing is both the name of a place and a factory, it's best found by drawing a straight line on the map from Salzburg to Linz (Linz is along the Danube) roughly halfway there is Vöcklabruck and to its south is a large lake, Attersee, on the shore of which is Seewalchen. The Ager river is also where Lenzing is located. It has its own beach on the shore of Attersee, and there are also public swimming spots. The water still looked very clear. The motorway going from Salzburg to Linz passes right by Seewalchen. Austria is a country that is densely - sparsely populated, since the habitable part of the country is relatively densely populated due to the mountains. I don't know enough to say how it would be if compared to Germany, but I guess Germany is a more densely populated country. After all, Austria only has 6.9 million inhabitants, while West Germany has 55 million. In terms of area, Austria is only a quarter the size of Finland, if we are to trust our encyclopedia. In that sense, it's like Finland, that the capital city is on the other end of the country.

I think a shiny black tombstone looks dignified, square in shape, possibly a bit rounded on the upper side. Of course, one could also consider Vehmaa's red granite if any of the relatives still work there. I guess my father has a personal connection in that direction, this is just my opinion, one I'm not going to push any further. We will naturally contribute to the costs. We have already bought a synthetic duvet (blanket) and pillows so we can give you a suitable duvet. We will naturally see whether it has any effect on Jürgen's asthma. Of course, he deals a lot with chemical substances here when conducting those exercises and experimenting with all sorts of (chemical experiments) on the side. At the moment he is already combining his lectures with issues that will arise in Lenzing, so he hits two flies with one swipe.

Reinhard is quite far along with his reading tasks. I started practising with him to read letter by letter together using a new system. He has a ambition of his own. Going to school just takes a very long time in his case because he was born in winter. Jürgen suggested that he should start school this autumn, but the registration was already last week and I think he is still very young. Last week Reinhard was quite ill, as both ears were hurting from a middle ear infection and he had a bad cough. Fortunately, the doctor gave proper medication and now he is healthy again.
Warm regards from us all.
Good health, and bright spring weather,
and a quiet greeting to father's grave
Liisa

Dear Mother! Willingrade 6.4.74

Thank you for your letter and happy Easter. Now all sorts of things come to me, as you are not coming, I was already so much looking forward to them in my mind. All week has been beautiful and warm, the air was just so suitable for me and somehow I would have prepared it in a completely different way, if I had expected pleasant guests. So if you only had a desire to travel, you would be very welcome. The larks have been chirping for almost a month, and the wagtail is also busily wobbling in the yard and sitting on the roof, surely it must have a nest tree very nearby. The warm weather has awakened the flies. They hibernated in thousands in our attic, even the floor cracks were full of them and although I vacuumed them with a vacuum cleaner, the next day there was an equal writhing on the floor. Ugh, ugh, it was disgusting, but that's obviously due to the manure piles of the farmers. I've been busy all week in the garden sowing carrots, spinach, dill, and parsley.

The soil is dust-dry and desperately needs rain. There has been plenty of storm and wind here too. Now luckily it has been a bit less windy, but it never seems to be completely calm here, probably because of the proximity of the sea. The wind dries the surface even more effectively than the sun potatoes. I have also made a few furrows. I need to buy some more early potato seeds. Our own potatoes are already so far sprouted that I'm happy to get rid of them. I was at the market in Neumünster last week and bought primroses for the garden + a peony and a delphinium plant. The viola season is currently at its best, and they bloom beautifully when brought from the greenhouses, but I can't bring myself to buy them because they only last until early summer. Some people have daffodils blooming in their yards, mine on the shady side are already starting to bloom in honor of Easter this week. The roses have wintered quite well. The thing I am nervous about is how the fruit trees and spruce and pine seedlings will survive the move here to the sandy soil. If it continues so dry, there will certainly be enough watering.

Neighbors have their own wells and they let me go fetch water for days, but our water comes from a common well and we have to pay 65 pennies per cubic meter. I would rather let the rain come from the sky. There was no snow, but the winter was quite damp. I didn't even try to enroll Reinhart in school because I was sure they wouldn't take him as he was born in January. I taught him to ride a bike and then he got a pedal car, which his heart so dearly wanted. Now he has been outside all week because of it and got some tan. Girls' Easter break started a week ago, they have been outside a lot after making so much acquaintance with the neighbor's girls, that they have company when needed. Moreover, they have been horseback riding which seems to be the only topic of conversation in the family - gradually "Oda did this and Brochti did that" all in the language of horsewomen, which I don't master at all. The clothes also changed suddenly to summer ones when it got warm. Knee socks of course only on legs and shorts. Heating has thankfully been reduced. Today I found wood anemones, they are blooming quite generously. The birches will soon be budding. Two weeks ago we were in Hamburg at Mutti's.

We were in the ethnological museum, where there were all kinds of items from Africa to Japan, in the latter section there were also Japanese paintings which are kept on a roll. Reinhard drew his own conclusions and says "that is their toilet paper roll." Mutti has reduced her workload at the hospital. I don't know why (she had to pay large back taxes and concluded that they were only due to that small increase. It raised her tax class higher, so it was for that reason. She decided to stop working to Günther's dismay) (Now it's Sunday evening, we just had a Finnish guest and another Finnish lady who is moving here to Willingrade after her house is ready. She is from Vaasa, but is Finnish in language, and didn't know Per-Erik. Her husband is from Neumünster and looks much more Finnish than his wife - tall and blonde) Mutti is surely is in her old strength. She will come here for a few days to visit.

Jürgen lets the water just flow into the bathtub, he looks dirty, after a lot of outdoor work. Last week we got to the neighbor's sauna. It was wonderful! Now there is a thought spinning in my mind, that emerged in the head as I thought, the father of this Finnish lady, an engineer by profession, will come here in May in his own car. He is apparently coming by boat from Turku to Stockholm and from there by car through Sweden. It would be great if you could get here comfortably, although of course it is a lot of sitting in the car, it probably takes a couple of days. I should ask. What do you think?

Monday morning: Today the weather is absolutely summer-like, downright hot, and the sun is shining from a cloudless sky. It came to mind when you talked about the auction, do you still have an extra potato hoe in some warehouse. Now when I planted potatoes I borrowed from a neighbor, but in the fall, your own potato hoe could be very useful. There are no longer blacksmiths making it, and there are no factory-made products here with that good old model.

Very beautiful Easter holidays to you and greetings to everyone.
To the homecomers
Liisa

PS: The Lenzing story is at the stage where Jürgen has presented his own demands and we will see if they agree to them. On the other hand, there is a similar factory here in Neumünster as in Glanzstoff, and they have heard at some congress that Jürgen was going to Lenzing. They pricked up their ears because they needed a man like Jürgen and now he is still negotiating about this, which would be much more comfortable for all of us, because a) he would not need to move anywhere b) would do exactly the same as in Lenzing and could use all his experiences to his advantage, and would not have to learn so much new and different than in Lenzing. However, it is not as high as in Lenzing, but not lower than in Glanzstoff either. The factory is smaller, but expansion plans exist. Unfortunately, they would want Jürgen already before the waiting period ends, and that does not go koshe, unless Glanzstoff gives a different permission. There's enough excitement again.

Dear mother! Willingrade 21.74

I received Tuulikki's letter with its joyful news of your arrival on 19th May. I hadn't dared anymore to hope that it would become true, but if the travel tickets have now been ordered, then the matter has moved a long way forward. A week's trip though is not very long, but maybe it's better that we first see how you cope during that week and then next time you can stay even longer. As you are now going to travel this route (and as long as we do not move to Austria), you will probably come more often. Hopefully, Jürgen will send you the agreed Finnish markka 700 at the end of the month when his account comes. Easter went very peacefully, Mutti brought a book for me to read during her visit and played solitaire with the children, so time passed in every way.

The neighbors took our children with them to look for Easter eggs in the forest. The lady went ahead to hide them, but it turned out that I had to find the last hiding places. Today is a dazzlingly beautiful day and it's hot even outside without a jacket and with short sleeves. We received new flower seedlings from the neighbors for the garden, even the slightest green is a delight in this so far somewhat barren environment. Weeds have, of course, flourished despite the drought, spinach and lettuce are sprouting.

The vegetables have not been watered, but every other evening water has been carted around in a bucket for the expensive tree seedlings. Fortunately, there are so many of us, otherwise it would take a lot of time. The seedlings that you brought me are on a good growth area, except for the red-flowered one (Phlox). The pansy already has a lot of buds and the other red one is also starting to bloom, but the frosts have partially frozen the shoots, and the rose leaves have also suffered. The start of the bushes brought from Heinsberg also look lively. It also has to be watered. The ground is dusty dry, no rain has been fallen in two months.

On Friday, the garage construction started. The foundation was cast and part of the framework was built. We have a neighbor who is a bricklayer, doing this as side jobs on weekends and evenings and we are working as helpers. When bringing the bricks, such a mishap occurred that the heavy load sank into our soft garden and the friend had work getting his car back onto the hard ground. In that, the car route made by Jürgen's hard work was messed up and the pavers shattered into pieces. Luckily I told the driver that he doesn’t necessarily have to drive along our road but could certainly use the neighboring paved one. So we are likely to get the damaged stones replaced by the company, but the work has to be redone.

The irises bloomed beautifully on Merja's birthday. Her gift wishes were mainly dictated by her horse riding hobby. After much persuasion, we promised them (Silja and Mirja) boots, but instead of real riding pants, they will have to settle for ski pants which I will sew horse riding spots from leather.
They are terribly expensive and when everything is multiplied by three, small amounts won't suffice. Anja fell off the horse again today, but she didn't hurt herself. Good morning, school is back to normal work pace and early morning awakenings.

Beautiful spring days,
With heartfelt greetings, Liisa

Dear Mother! Willingrade 1.5.72

I'm so sorry that nothing will come of the trip, but then there's nothing one can do about it, so give up trying. It's good that it's not a disappointment for you. It certainly is for me. I hope Tuulikki gets her money back, if not, we'll compensate her for the damage I indirectly caused her. So give her the money I sent, minus your passport costs, and if it were so fortunate that she gets the price of the travel tickets back, you can use it as my share to put on father's tombstone, or for other expenses.

Sending back and forth is definitely not worth it. If I were you, I'd convert the inheritance into the amount of money needed for inheritance tax, and maybe it would be best to sell Tuulhattu's School at an auction, as long as you get enough to pay off the debts, so you don't always have to pay interest. At least it was lucky that the fire wasn't in the building itself. I was already afraid of the damage it would do. I had just managed to put my letter in the mail on Saturday when yours and Tuulikki's letters arrived at the same time. So I missed the news from both sides when they both announced that you both were canceling your trip. Oh, how I cried! Maybe I'll be able to come alone in the autumn, when Jürgen is in Austria, maybe Mutti will take the children. First I have to see how our finances start to get arranged.
Our children also had a Mother's Day cake. I had to bake a cake for the bricklayers. Otherwise, the girls would have baked it themselves. There was morning coffee in bed and new potholders, and Reinhard recited a Mother's Day poem. It was such a beautiful day. The cuckoo crowed for the first time, and the first swallow flew over the roof. This week I have to register Anja for middle school. She doesn't have to take any entrance exam, because she gets a recommendation from a primary school teacher who only recommended her under certain conditions, namely that Anja would be a little more diligent, and otherwise he considered Anja to be a little young or childish for her age, as I would put it. In Austria she will probably have to repeat the first grade anyway. That's all for now, good health to you,

With melancholical regards

Liisa
PS: Can you find our Latin grammar and Liber Latinus, I definitely need it!

Willingrade, May 11, 1974

Dear Mother!
Thank you for your letter. I haven't even had time to write a Mother's Day card, which I'm sorry about. But I'm all the more delighted that in a week's time we'll have you here with us. You probably can't imagine how much that means to me. All these years here, far away. Of course, I try to tell you all kinds of things, but I can't tell you everything. I wish I could show my parents how quietly we've moved forward. My thoughts are haunted by your former threat to come and mess up our home, just as we did when you said that, as we had just done. Our own kids will take care of the mess for you, as of course all your own evil deeds will come back to you in kind and be carried on by your own children. That's how it's always been and how it always will be. We sent the travel money in your name by mail. The Finnish markka exchange rate is incredibly poor, as the whole thing only cost us half that amount. We thought that the postal clerk might have looked at the wrong list for the exchange rate and would rush to inform us, but since nothing has happened, it must be true. At least I hope you received the money in full and on time. And have a great trip! I asked the children if they wanted any souvenirs, but they didn't. I just know that "Fazer's best" have always been popular in our family.

Our trip to Austria got a boost in the meantime, as Jürgen's suggestions were accepted, albeit after much deliberation, but without compromising on anything. The final stage in the matter will come while you are here, we assume. Jürgen said that since they were so accommodating, he might have to give in somewhere, and he decided to start there on August 1. The sad consequence of this is that our trip to Finland has been canceled, which is not quite as painful since you are visiting here and we will at least see each other this summer. Another sad thing I saw in the Perniönseudun Lehti newspaper was that the Tuulhattu school has burned down. I'll hear the reasons and consequences from you, hopefully there won't be too many repairs to do. Poor mother, that must be terribly upsetting. I hope at least the insurance is in order. According to the newspaper, there have been many fires. It's still dry here too. It didn't rain for a couple of days, it snowed! On May 6, it snowed really heavily, but it melted away within a day. The garage construction has progressed so much that we had a topping-out ceremony yesterday. We celebrated with a ceremony, as there was no topping-out ceremony for this building at all. The neighbors and the bricklayer and his wife joined in the celebration. There's not much else to report, except to let you know the exact time your plane will be landing here. We'll be there to meet you! So, next Sunday, May 19, at ? late in the evening.
Welcome!!
Warmest regards
Liisa + family

Dear Mom, Willingrade 7.7.74

Many thanks for your letter. I was eagerly waiting for it, but then I understood that the exact same things keep us apart. It's nice that you've managed to do gardening. We also have plenty of those tasks. The amount of weeds seems unbelievable, it's almost as if the whole soil was just weed seeds. And then there are those with tumors at every inch of the roots, and those roots seem to be miles long. I'm sitting here at the dinner table and looking straight out, where half of the lawn is lush green due to last week's heavy rains, the other half I sowed just last week, there wasn't much seed left and since it's so expensive, I couldn't afford to buy more. But now there are sparrows constantly picking up the little seeds from there. I tried to chase Anja's cat to keep watch, but it doesn't understand. The swallows have built their nest under our wide roof on the west end. A swallow-nest supposedly brings luck to the house. At the moment we could certainly use some luck. Pollen has been flying so that Jürgen's asthma has been very troublesome and in addition, he has been getting hay fever occasionally, as has Silja. Even Mirja, who has never had any allergies, complained about getting hay fever. The worst time is probably now over, and the rain has cleaned the air. Silja got tablets, which were not as effective as the injections, but this doctor here was not familiar with that medicine like the former one in Heinsberg.

Summer vacation for our children began on the 27th day. The report cards were the same as usual. Math is still the weakest subject, there is no cause for concern in other subjects. This is Mirja's pen and it's so sharp that I can't write properly with it. Someone had thrown my pen down from the shelf and the tip had broken. It's so old that spare parts were no longer available. We have indulged a little in strawberries, which were really good quality. This year, unfortunately, there were only a few. It seems to have been a weak strawberry year, as prices have been over 2 DM per half kilo at the market. You can't afford to buy such. I'm trying to preserve more apricot jam as they seemed to be quite cheap, and wow, apricot jam is delicious, but preserving leaves a little bit of time as Jürgen's short summer holiday begins next week and he famously likes to travel if the weather permits.

At the moment, I'm not particularly in the mood because the storm clouds pour down rain whenever it suits them. We have been on both the east and north seas, but there was no water in the North Sea. It was low tide and here on the coast of Germany, the water is so shallow that during low tide you can run for kilometers in knee-deep water, even at high tide it might not feel much different. At least in our case, we spent the morning of the biggest flood walking far from the shore at the bottom of the sea, it was not even fun barefoot on sharp clam shells. At around five in the evening, water had indeed reached the shore, but as said, it was only knee-deep. No one swam there, they sat in a beach chair or walked back and forth on the beach. In Holland and Denmark you can swim whenever you want, unless it is very windy. The Baltic Sea's beach is rather narrow and the is shallow as if it's mud. But there was too much water there, it began to rain endlessly and we were happy when we got home again. What was the Juhala and Eerola celebration like? They probably felt important when everyone joined. I'm already sad in advance that none of you will come to Silja and Mirja's confirmation. If only Aggie and Günther would come. They still haven't visited us. Usually they are on vacation in the Bavarian Alps, where they have rented a cabin. There you can ski in winter, but the trip from Hamburg to Munich's new Winkelmoosalm is always terribly long.

Your horn violets bloomed beautifully all summer, the bells are just budding, the nemophilia is the only one of my summer flowers that is already blooming. Only a few asters have grown from seeds, and pansies are now slowly developing. But the balcony is beautiful with its pelargoniums. The roses are blooming pretty nicely, only three died out of forty over the winter. The delphiniums have already bloomed in a brilliant sky blue, but once again nothing came of the lilies. Now we also need to plant in the autumn. I put them in the ground only in the spring, and they had already grown curly in the package and never properly straightened out. It might be best to switch to supporting the daylilies. We have already harvested a lot from the vegetable garden, as we have salad on the table every day. Now the lettuce heads are next, then come the peas and whatever-the-name-is-in-Finnish (Kohlrabi) vegetables, a bit turnip-taste, growing above ground. Dill has gotten an incredible amount of greenflys, they just wilt, but you can't kill them with poison. Even the parsley doesn't look very good. There is a beetle infestation on the potatoes, and for some reason the leaves are already turning yellow too early. Perhaps they should be treated as well.

Mrs. Schütt traveled with her father to Vaasa for a couple of months. I promised to take their children into daycare next winter, as she is taking a job to pay off the building's debts. Mikael is the same age as Rinhard and I suppose he doesn't require much care anymore, but Anja is just a small baby, who needs feeding and nappy changing and watching over, but as I won't have to do the laundry and the care ends around four in the afternoon, I believe I can manage with the child. Then I won’t have to take care of Jürgen or the garden in winter. I've told them that of course, I can only look after them until we move. We also have a telephone now. The number is 043 28/739. Mum visited us last Sunday in between her trips. She was at home a bit in between too. First, she was with Tante Grete in Sauerland at a hotel for 2 weeks. Now she's staying at a friend's summer house in Amrum, which is an island in the North Sea. That's where she was always with Pappi in summers.

Silja started playing the piano again a little bit after I bought her sheet music for Strauss's waltzes. "The Beautiful Blue Danube" is her first attempt. We won’t be too far from the Danube in our conquest of the new homeland in Seewalchen. Mirja made a new acquaintance for herself. Birgitte Brand is the only child, and accordingly has her share of stuff. Stamp collecting seems to be the common hobby at the moment. Even Anja will get a new friend nearby when Simone moves next door next week. Simone is only six years old and Reinhard would be a better match to play with her and when Anja is not home she certainly will do. This only brings news from our family, but it was terribly nice to read from your letter what’s happening with the rest of the Virtanens. I just received letters also from Tuulikki and Päivi, but other than that the writings are scarce. Lasse and Onerva are busy, understandably. And Pekka and Arja are also both always busy at work, not to mention Leena.

We sit again after dinner with Latin. It stretches the evenings long. So basically only Sunday is somewhat free. We're preparing Jürgen's move, we need to acquire new stuff and the old ones are being fixed up. Once a month I get to go home, but if the journey takes one way on a train 16 and a half hours, it is quite exhausting. He plans to leave the car for my use. A round trip by car to Austria would be even more exhausting than traveling by train. It's going to be a tough year, luckily now at least there is a phone connection, although talking is so expensive that it cannot be done often for fun. Prices are continually rising on all sides. Have you visited Särkisalo at all? As far as I'm concerned, rugs can be washed there, if the neighbors don't object.

However, we won't get to swim there this summer, whether the water is dirty or clean. I have written to the Salo Land Survey Office and asked if that measurement will be done this summer. But I haven't received an answer. How unlucky a person must be to have a beautiful beach plot and not be able to get to it. Please visit the shoreline once. Today there is again a strongly howling west wind, but it has only rained once. There may be another weather change coming. We would want it to be warmer. Päivi sent a picture with Sami, the boy does not look like Päivi at all, but his gaze is sharp. Babies are adorable. Next Sunday would be father's birthday.

In my thoughts, I am with you by the blooming plum tree.
With heartfelt greetings,
Liisa

Dear Mother! Willingrade 26 August 74
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A rather big thunderstorm is currently rising in the sky over Willinggrade. It has been hot and beautiful ever since school started. A bit late in the summer. Jürgen has been sweating at work and I hear he also felt a little bit better after swimming in Seewalchen at the weekend. Are we expecting him home this weekend? You know that feeling of anticipation, first waiting for a letter and then in the last week you don't want the time to end at all. Otherwise it just wants to end in the middle. Jürgen has his own apartment in a place called Timelkam, from where he takes the bus to work in Lenzing. He gets up at six in the morning, makes coffee, and goes to work at seven. He eats dinner at the company. The portions are said to be small, so he somehow stays alive by eating a sandwich at home. He has been given a friendly, albeit very critical and curious reception. Austrians, like the southern Germans, are direct. The new man is of course being watched and examined closely and there is great curiosity. Why has he gone there in particular? That the reason is almost exclusively Dr. Studt is of course the correct explanation, but it would lead to certain assumptions about a relationship of dependency, so Jürgen has explained everything possible, starting from his time at the University of Graz and Tante Grete's stay in Linz to Mutti's Munich origins. At least so far, Glanzstoff has not tried to prevent him from being there, even though they are aware of the new step. Yes, the Austrian way of life is different from the German way. Here, everyone is taken more seriously, what is said is meant. Austrians take life more lightly and are therefore in a way more pleasant people, open and friendly, but not everything should be taken literally, as Jürgen says. He craves quick activity, does things immediately and does not like delays. Of course, I feel Austrians are kindred spirits for this reason. Many things are simply postponed and nothing can be done about it. The house we are supposed to move into next year hasn't even been built yet. The local nature conservation office hasn't given permission yet, even though there isn't much nature left where it is going to be built, a small house with roads on three sides. We are having such a good time here in Willingrade that I can almost compare it to Perniö. When you get enough trees and bushes, flowers and vegetables and grass to grow, you can also take root. A couple of acquaintances who have nothing to do with a man's work are much more relaxing company. The only thing I am really afraid of is spending my life with people from the same company. Of course, you can meet nice people, even likeable ones, but you never dare to be yourself and compulsively put on an official smile when you are dealing with them.

Timelkam 24.9.
This month has gone so far that I haven't even finished a letter. I have to write letters to Jürgen three times a week, that's what most of the evening time is used for. One evening a week I go to the bath and then I have some free evenings to prepare for the next Latin lesson. However, I'm here with Jürgen this week. He really missed my coming and Mutti was able to visit the children now that Uncle Gotthard's week-long visit was over. He was visiting Willingrade with Aunt Edith. He was so fit that I couldn't believe he was 76. They had first been in Switzerland and returned to America last Friday. The collapse of the dollar is really affecting him and Mutti said that her otherwise generous brother had been much more frugal than before. I got a card from Pekka and Arja from Budapest, that was a surprise. How did they get there, on a group trip? I was also excited about my trip, as I did it alone by train and at night. The most exciting part of the trip, however, was the bus from Willingrade to Neumünster, when there wasn't much time before the train left. It was a Friday evening and there was more traffic on the streets than usual, the bus crawled from one traffic light to the next, but it made it to the station five minutes before the train left. The round trip cost 260 DM, so this travel is not cheap either. Jürgen gets his travel paid for by the company and in first class, so it's worth it for him to go home and not vice versa. For me, being here is a vacation like I haven't had in a long time. I did bring a pot and a frying pan, so I've been cooking and cleaning these corners of Jürgen's. Of course, it rained on Sunday, but we were still outside walking a 10-kilometer run up and down the mountain slope and now everything is stiff from the unusual exercise. It has been beautiful and warm here until I came. It's almost as cool now as in Willingrade, where I had also started heating in the evenings. Jürgen has an oil stove in his room, but the oil won't arrive until tomorrow, yesterday the hot water heater was fixed. It's really convenient to have your own kitchen, the room is spacious. The same goes for the kitchen.

Although the windows face north, the kitchen gets afternoon sun, but never the living room. Monday was beautiful weather and I was walking alone. This one has big old pear trees, lots of apples and plums. There are a lot of lawns on the slopes and in the valleys, the grass is cut for animal feed, but you hardly see cows on the pasture, they are fed in the barn all summer. In Willingrade, cows are outside. We did see cattle outside here too, but they were obviously not dairy cows but beef cows. They hardly have udders at all. Do they milk them? Yesterday the mountains were clearly visible, there is a long line of them on the southern horizon, otherwise there are only fairly steep hills. Lots of forest, coniferous and deciduous trees. Timelkam is similar in type to Obernburg or Oberbruch. The chimney of the Lenzing factory sets the pace of life. There are a lot of newer apartment buildings here for the workers. The shops are small, but there is everything on offer. Vöcklabruck is the nearest larger centre, where you can probably shop more cheaply. The railway line that runs past Timelkam is a busy railway line, and the connection from Vienna to Germany runs along this line. Next Saturday we will make a joint trip along the Danube to Dürnburg. Since I will also be taking part, I will then get to know some of Jürgen's colleagues. The most notable architectural sights in Austria are baroque. We will probably see some magnificent churches. They have the splendor, power and might that Catholics use to subjugate the population to the power of God or the church, and none of the quiet and devout atmosphere that we miss in the church in Finland. In September, Willingrade has of course been harvesting time. I have already picked all the potatoes. They were not spoiled by the size, but for now, we have our own potatoes. There was plenty of beetroot and carrots. There were so many cabbage worms in the cabbages that I had to collect the worms up by the liter. They started crawling along the wall to the roof to lay eggs and pupate. It was really disgusting, but when they got into the cabbage and ate everything clean. .... (continued)

Dear Mother,

it must be about a month since our letters crossed paths. How are you feeling now, since you weren't feeling well then? Have you been in the hospital in the meantime? And what else is going on? I think it's Eero's birthday in a couple of days, so please give him my congratulations. And Sami will soon be celebrating her first birthday. Or is there a new baby on the way? That's exciting, especially for Samilla, even though she doesn't know it yet. But you must have your hands full with two children. It's nice to have children who are wanted and who have space, and they certainly do. I'm also busy with these children now that Jürgen is taking care of himself.

The last time Jürgen was at home, we had to have a serious talk because we found out that Anja had been stealing small amounts of money from one person or another to buy candy and other things she wanted. We had to be really strict with her, even though we are also at fault in that we have tried to keep the children away from sweets. At school, there are kids who snack and drink soda during every break. Anja has always had a sweet tooth, and she is also the most fragile of our children. Of course, we understand her, and that's why she now takes more snacks with her to school from home. Apparently, she is also in a new stage of development, as her mood is changeable, volatile, easily offended, and unrestrained. Silja's development has been more peaceful throughout.

Mirja, on the other hand, is still clearly unbalanced, although this only manifests itself as occasional bad moods. Silja's great source of jealousy, Mirja's dance partner, found his way all the way to Willingrade, but Mirja was not particularly fond of him and seems to have already sent him away for the time being. For Mirja, a horse is a better friend than a boyfriend. There's nothing wrong with boys, but I also think it's pointless to start dating at such a young age. Silja now has a good friend in her class who is just as enthusiastic about history as Silja is.

She brought her friend to our house and my mother's right away. They are both nice, and we talked for a long time, and then I stayed over at their house. Silja continues to develop her craft skills. She sewed herself a skirt because she is so fashion-conscious and absolutely had to have a long skirt, a knee-length bell skirt. Now she has sewn herself a nightgown and a blouse using the same pattern, and next she will sew long pants. I have already bought the fabric. Of course, a long skirt needs a long coat to go with it, and I've already made one to my daughter's satisfaction. I'm currently sewing a long skirt for Mirja for her dance class graduation. I once bought a piece of black velvet in Heinsberg, a remnant, but it wasn't quite long enough, so I have to buy another half meter and cover the seam with braided ribbon. The main thing is that Mirja is happy.

Silja likes my long skirt, so making one will be enough for now. We'll see how long Silja and I can get by with just one skirt. As far as I'm concerned, you can sell the loom; I'll probably never have time to weave again, even though I wouldn't mind doing it, of course, and the girls would probably enjoy it too, but we simply live too far away and have to limit ourselves in some ways, as weaving is no longer a necessity in life as it used to be. Silja and Mirja are now helping to turn the soil on a voluntary basis. They tried to fill their pile with five when I planted 10 new bushes in the garage by the roadside. There is still work to be done in the garden, but it is raining quite a lot and it is cold again, but I will go out again this week when the most important sewing is done.

However, there will be new tasks now, as we have decided to buy a deep-freeze freezer (I can't think of the right word right now). This decision was prompted by two pieces of good news: first, we found out that we don't have to pay back the moving costs, which would have been 6,000 DM. Secondly, we received an unexpected tax refund. So we've been in a celebratory mood. The first thing we need to do is pack the carrots into the freezer, which we haven't even bought yet. On the other hand, I didn't have to take those other children into my care, at least not yet, because Mrs. Schuett didn't get the job she was talking about. There have been fewer jobs available and the economy is running at a slower pace. Mrs. Schuett said that prices in Finland had risen sharply and were still rising. How are you getting along financially, Mom? We no longer have to worry about large expenses, so we can help out again if needed.

Is Dad's gravestone in place? By the way, I finally received a reply to my letter from the land surveying office in Salo. They said that the separation will not be finalized until next summer, but I should authorize someone living in Finland whom they could contact if necessary. I thought I would ask Lassen to take care of it. It shouldn't be too much work, but I need to know if they already have all the necessary paperwork or if they need anything else. Jürgen is coming to visit this week. Friday is a Catholic holiday, so he gets an extra day for his trip. Luckily, my mother-in-law was with him during the week. I heard it was cold, but I guess it's been chilly everywhere this fall. Hissu, our cat, is eating mice, and he's visibly gained weight. And that's about all the news I have. How did that Keihäsmatkat thing turn out? It wasn't the only one in its field; I heard that a travel agency in England went under too. Another Sunday has passed. In the morning, I took the children to church. Reinhard likes listening to the organ, but I think the sermon bored him a little. Please give my regards to everyone when you see them or write to them. We won't be moving for a long time yet, says Jürgen.

Nothing has been started yet. All the best to you, dear mother. I would love to come and visit again. We are already planning for next summer.
Warmest regards, Liisa
PS Erkki Lahti, Chief Constable of Perniö ?

Willingrade , 16.12.74
Mother dear
Heartfelt Christmas greetings and thanks for your letter. Everyone here is looking forward to Christmas, I, late, only got my ham in the back today. We are having a normal celebration, that is, we are on our own, we eat ham and a box of savoury cakes as usual, we have Mutti as a guest on the afternoon of the first Christmas Day, and we play and sing and enjoy being together. The only new thing is the television, which Mutti inherited from us after buying herself a colour one. We will see how much it disturbs the peace. So far I have only had time to watch it once, and even then I missed going to the bath, so it is more of a nuisance than a joy. Our neighbour brought us a Christmas tree today, like all fir trees, this one is not quite perfect in its kind, but now we can blame the neighbour for everything, at least the peace in the family has been saved. Jürgen will come on Saturday and stay until Epiphany, so that there will be enough Christmas cheer for a longer period. Onerva sent cute pictures of Johanna and Sohvi, the latter looks a lot like Lasse, at least judging by the picture. Our children were also in the picture together, although only at home. Here in the village, as is the custom, a photographer comes once every three years, takes pictures of everyone, and then you can order or not order. The pictures are not particularly good, and the methods were from the last century, it's a wonder the children don't look completely unnatural, so they were forced into rigid positions. In any case, grandma will receive a merry Christmas greeting from all four of them with the picture. We also got to enjoy a bit of the snowy winter atmosphere last Friday, it was snowing and freezing, and the landscape was like a Christmas postcard. Too bad it was such a short-lived joy. However, I did get to turn the last of the manure into the ground today, let winter come! The autumn gloom, fog, rain, and greyness have been enough for so long that even Mutti felt depressed, not to mention Jürgen, for whom loneliness is the worst, especially when there is so much to talk about. Mutti came to visit for the day, and when the weather was nice, it seemed to lighten her up. She has a lot of acquaintances, and she still goes to the hospital from time to time to help. This year she will spend the evening together with another widow. On Christmas Day she will go to Aggie's (she can't leave the roast goose!!) and then come to us. What has happened since the last letter? Silja and Mirja have at least had their final dance classes, a festive affair, long dresses, a bouquet of flowers from a cavalier. First crushes on dancing cavaliers, and for Silja also the first heartbreak when her cavalier left. Well, that is almost over again. In January they will go to further courses. Anja's school has been going well. Reinhard has learned to fight with Michael and get along like friends at least. Little Anja is nice to look after, completely different from our children. She comes to the potty on command even after eating, and otherwise she is a lovely sight with her pouting and captivating exclamations whenever there is something new to see. Unfortunately (!) Mrs. Schütt is leaving work again at Christmas, the salary and working hours did not please her. Quite often the children's grandmother also comes home to look after them, so I have not always kept them. Silja has made a lot of Christmas presents, Mirja has probably done something too, I don't have much to do. I am now sewing long trousers for Anja and knitting a sweater for Jürgen, the others have all been bought - there is just not enough time, and then sometimes the wishes are such that they cannot even be prepared by hand. Silja and Mirja are getting surprise gifts, Mirja a radio, Silja a cassette recorder (I don't know what it is called in Finnish) the kind that you can use to record a program from the radio onto a tape, i.e. onto a cassette, or speak it yourself. They have been hardworking, after all, and now they have had to do a lot of extra work with Latin, that is why they are getting rewarded. They have started building a house in Lenzing, we will probably spend next Christmas in Austria, because they say it is expected to be ready by the end of the year -75. We will have to endure this separation for a long time. We have booked our ferry tickets to Finland on 23 June and our return tickets on 14 July. Fearing an economic recession, Jürgen still decided not to make a final decision, and that is why we cannot book any holiday cottages anywhere. The question is, can we come to Perniö?! Jürgen would also like to visit Säteri Oy in Valkeakoski on behalf of the company and a research institute in Helsinki, and then he would like to visit Åland, but only with me, if the children could be placed in the care of a godparent and other aunts. Now that you are together for Christmas, let's chat. And then there is no more room here for anything other than wishing you a very good and child-friendly Christmas.
Lots of health for the whole new year!
Warmly remembering you
Liisa and family