Great-grandmother Gerda sometime in the 1920's.





She lived to be 90 and died in 2000, so I knew her well.


Great-grandfather Paavo and his taxicab in Helsinki, sometime in the 1920's:





Paavo was born in 1902 and died in 1986; I remember him also. He and great-grandma Gerda lived in the then working-class, now trendy part in Helsinki called Kallio. They had a room and a kitchen where two people could not stand without bumping into each other. When the kids, grandkids and us great-grandkids visited, it would get really crowded. Although there weren't that many of us. It was just a really, really small apartment.

During their working lives Paavo drove a cab and Gerda worked as a saleslady. When I was born, they were already retired. When I visited, I'd try to read Gerda's Swedish-language magazines or chat with Paavo, who would lift me up high in the air to look at a clock that he had on the wall. For some reason, I was very fascinated with that clock. It is now in my basement; I cannot keep it in my apartment because it's too loud.

Paavo in his Winter War uniform, 1940:





Gerda, Paavo and an unknown person in 1940:




You have a normal feeling for a moment, then it passes. --More--