Relatives lost, now found

In an earlier blog (last november) I wrote about roots. This summer my second cousin Ann from the USA visited her father´s old country together with her husband. On the way over they stopped in Denmark to visit the relatives of Russ, her husband.

In the 20-ties Ann's grandfather had worked in this region i. e. at Kymmene bruk in Kuusankoski.

We drove from Kotka along the Kymi river and on the way we saw the papermills in Ingerois and Myllykoski. From Kuusankoski we went to the Verla papermill in Valkeala, which nowadays is a museum. These small mills are the kind of millcommunities that my father´s late cousin Henni descibes in his book Tack snälla bolaget - Ett bruksbarn blickar i backspegeln (you can buy it at Luckan) . The company took care of you, provided housing, electricity heating etc. The workforce had clubhouses, a tennis court and provided schooling for your children, in short they took care of pretty much everything. A similarily intresting book is :

Min bruksmiljö
Åbo Akademi, 2004, 312 s., ill., Rapport, 10, Etnologiska
institutionen vid Åbo Akademi. ISBN: 952-12-1184

Meeting relatives, distant and close, is important and it was really interesting to meet people you knew existed but whom you never had met. I also met her uncle Nils-Erik, whom I had met at my mother´s funeral. At the funeral we both marveled at Halvar Sandell´s quotation from the Book of Revelations 20:9-15:

20:09 They went up over the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. Fire came down out of heaven from God, and devoured them.
20:10 The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
20:11 I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
20:12 I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works.
20:14 Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
20:15 If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
(Och de draga fram över jordens hela vidd och omringa de heligas läger och "den
älskade staden"; men eld faller ned från himmelen och förtär dem.

Och djävulen, som förvillade dem, bliver kastad i samma sjö av eld och svavel, dit
vilddjuret och den falske profeten hade blivit kastade; och de skola där plågas
dag och natt i evigheternas evigheter.

Och jag såg en stor vit tron och honom som satt därpå; och för hans ansikte flydde jord och himmel, och ingen plats blev funnen för dem.

Och jag såg de döda, både stora och små, stå inför tronen, och böcker blevo upplåtna. Och jämväl en annan bok blev upplåten; det var livets bok. Och de döda blevo dömda efter sina gärningar, på grund av det som var upptecknat i böckerna.

Och havet gav igen de döda som voro däri, och döden och dödsriket gåvo igen de döda som voro i dem; och dessa blev dömda, var och en efter sina gärningar.

Och döden och dödsriket blevo kastade i den brinnande sjön; detta, den brinnande sjön, är den andra döden. Och om någon icke fanns skriven i livets bok, så blev han kastad i den brinnande sjön.)

These were stong words at a funeral and directed to the mourners urging them to repent before it is too late. The priest did not say wether mother´s name is written in the book of life...
A lot of people felt uncomfortable with these words reeking of brimstone and hellfire. I´m over it and..

This summer we discovered that both Nils-Erik and I like Dante´s Il Divina Commedia and it looks like we´ve made Ann interested as well.

Have a good August

Lefa