Frankie reads 2013

[Janet]

Lovely that you've got some photos of your Grandma.      I can imagine how difficult it must have been to read the letters. 

[bookmonkey]

It's lovely you got to find out a bit about your grandma Frankie.  It's always interesting learning about family history, even if it does stir up the emotions sometimes.

[Brian.]

Family history is always so fascinating and its good to hear that you have managed to fill some the gaps in your family history.

[Devi]

I love family history! Similar to you, I never knew my grandmother, she died when my mum was seven. My mum often tells me stories about her, I wish I got to know her. I knew my grandfather, he passed at 92. He used to chase us around with his false teeth, I used to sit there trying to pull my teeth out thinking thats what teeth did naturally .

 

I never knew my dads parents, what I have been told was they weren't very nice to my dad. The father was abusive (to what degree not sure), and his step mother never liked my dad. I don't know anything about his biological mother. Even today 9 years after my dad has passed, its a bit of a taboo subject.

 

I did find something out rather interesting about my dad about a month ago. He served in the Italian military before he came to Australia. It was a means of getting away from home.

[Athena]

Your poor dad .

 

I think I'm relatively lucky. I still have all four of my grandparents. I've known three of my greatgrandmothers, when I was a child, I've not met any of my greatgrandfathers.

[frankie]

I'll get to replying to those ^ later, am now a bit mega tired. Met a friend and her two kids and hubby, and as much fun as it was, it wore me off completely It was hard to focus when you're trying to draw impressive pics and listen to your friend whom you haven't talked to in ages, while trying to also listen to the kids who are trying to tell you all kinds of interesting things Bless her kids, they are so, so smart, and very well behaved.

 

Went to the library finally, bought three removed books (1e per book)

- True Characters: Real People in Fiction, edited by Alan Bold and Robert Giddings (Over 300 fictional characters, ships, houses, operas, ballads, legends, nursery rhymes and films - analysed, identified and revealed). A very cute little book!

- Science Fiction, edited by Juhani Hinkkanen and Kai Ekholm. A Finnish book on science fiction. I haven't had time to look into this very deeply, but the copy's in excellent condition, and it looks like it could've been published this year, but it's from 1990. Contains general articles and author introductions, at least.

- From Brontë to Lagerlöf. This is another book in the Finnish series of books containing mini biographies of the greatest masters of literature. I already have a copy of From Dante to Dickens and From Heidenstam to Undset.

[frankie]

Somebody posted somewhere on here about Book Depo's new 50 offers in 24 hours -offer day, and I just remembered to go and check when they started, and coincidentally it was about 9 minutes til the start! So I got to see the first offer, really exciting. Laughed my behind off when I noticed it was Tom Hardy's Tess

[chaliepud]

I just looked at it too and thought of you!  Wonder what will be next? Madame Bovary? 

[frankie]

I just looked at it too and thought of you!  Wonder what will be next? Madame Bovary? 

 

Most likely!

 

Then perhaps The Prime of Miss Jean Brody by Muriel Spark and The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty

[Kylie]

I just looked at it too and thought of you!  Wonder what will be next? Madame Bovary? 

 

If this comes up, I'm going to buy Frankie and Poppyshake a copy each for Christmas.  Have you read it, Chalie?

[chaliepud]

No I haven't, not sure it's something I would like either.

[frankie]

If this comes up, I'm going to buy Frankie and Poppyshake a copy each for Christmas.  Have you read it, Chalie?

 

And then I'll bin the book You'd like that, huh?

[poppyshake]

If this comes up, I'm going to buy Frankie and Poppyshake a copy each for Christmas.  Have you read it, Chalie?

It will keep me cosy warm all Christmas .. my wood burner needs feeding

[frankie]

It will keep me cosy warm all Christmas .. my wood burner needs feeding

 

 

:giggle: Good thinking!

[Kylie]

And then I'll bin the book You'd like that, huh?

It will keep me cosy warm all Christmas .. my wood burner needs feeding

  

 

You would both really trash/burn a book that your dearest, darlingest friend gave you?     

 

What if I wrote a really lovely message inside it?

[frankie]

 

You would both really trash/burn a book that your dearest, darlingest friend gave you?     

 

You would really buy us a book you knew we disliked more than a teeny tiny bit? :wibbly:

[Kylie]

Damn! I was hoping you wouldn't come back at me with that comment! 

 

OK, I won't buy you the book (it hasn't come up in the sale anyway). I guess I'll have to find a book you actually want from the millions on your wish list.

 

Let's kiss and make up. 

[frankie]

Damn! I was hoping you wouldn't come back at me with that comment! 

 

I'm quite smart when need be

 

OK, I won't buy you the book (it hasn't come up in the sale anyway). I guess I'll have to find a book you actually want from the millions on your wish list.

 

Wohoo!

 

Let's kiss and make up. 

 

Mwwwwwahhh!  

[frankie]

x

wow, I've never heard of such a thing happening! Do you know if they found the person who did it?

 

This is re: the person breaking and entering to the local library.

 

When the police came in to check the premises, they found the person and took him to jail. I don't know what's happened since: whether they found out why he'd broken and entered, or not Such weird thing to happen!

 

Aw.  

 

That sounds like very emotional reading (and viewing) for sure. I'm glad you have been able to learn a bit about your Dad's mum though. And it must be lovely to see a pic of your grandma, and in her wedding gown no less! 

 

It was very emotional. I've always, always been very curious about her (her name was Martta, by the way), and I was really happy to all of a sudden be able to see her Dad looks very much like her Oh and I found out about her Birthday, too, she was born exactly 60 years and two months before me (well I don't know about the time of day, of course ) She was born 18.10, and her daughter's son (my fave cousin from Dad's side of the family) was born 18.11 and I was born 18.12. I like that line of 'continuation'

 

I didn't see her wedding gown, it was a close up of her and Gramps, I only saw that she had a white, nice shirt Oh, and Dad had gotten a bunch of pics from her cousin on an e-mail, I haven't gone through them all yet, all the info was so much to take in, that I've kind of postponed looking at the other pictures. I forwarded that e-mail to myself and I'll go over the pics during the weekend. Very exciting!!

 

Wow that must have been difficult . I'm glad you learned more about your dad's mum, it's great you have a photograph, although it's very sad that you've never met her .

 

I've always felt sad about never having met her, and my Dad not knowing her, but I'm loving getting to know all things about her now Thank goodness for the pics and letters!

 

And did I tell you guys, that Gramma's sister married my Grandpa's brother? Such a funny thing. Must've been extra special for them

 

Very emotional but how lovely they lived in a time of letters as now you are able to read them..Nowadays it's all emails and texts and they will be long gone in years to come.

 

I know, I talked about it with my friends this week, when I told them about Gramma's letters etc. It's a real shame how people don't write letters anymore

 

Such emotional stuff , but good that there is 'stuff' out there that is coming together regarding your Grandma.

 

Thanks Chrissy, I'm very, verrrry happy (as pontalba would say ) about stuff

 

One thing I forgot to mention: my parents now have Grampa's rocking chair! My step-Gramma apparently didn't like it, it was not comfortable for her to sit on, so she got another one from her relative when that relative recently passed on, and then gave Grandpa's rocking chair to my Dad. Grandpa and my Grandma's, and Grandpa and step-Gramma's kids all live out of town, in the south, apart from my Dad who is the only one who still live in Nurmes, so I gather that's why my Dad got the chair. It was quite nostalgic seeing the chair at my parents' house... I remember when I was a kid and we went to visit them, Grandpa would get out of his rocking chair and he would come to the door to greet us, and he would always give me the biggest hug...! He hugged me so tight that it actually hurt a bit, and it was a tiny bit scary going in because I knew he'd be cracking my rib bones again, but at the same time it was really really nice, because he seemed always so happy to see me... I'm getting teary-eyed again

 

Oh, frankie!  That is so absolutely, over the top, wonderful.  I'm so happy you are able to enjoy seeing and reading about your grandmother!  To have a base like that, to be able to read her words, no matter how unhappy some of those words are is beyond amazing.  It roots a person to be able to understand their heritage.  And really, those unhappy words are possibly more revealing of her entire personality than any happy snippets would be. This is a memorable visit for you, why don't you write down, in a notebook, your experiences on this visit?  As chalie mentions, electronic stuff is sort of "in the air", so a paper trail would be sweet to be able to look back on in years to come.

 

I've never really talked to anyone about how much it has always saddened me to not know anything about my Grandma... I've always kind of felt that some people might think it odd for me to be so curious about her, not having known her or ever met her... So I guess I've always kind of thought that it's not normal to think about her so much.   So it's been really wonderful to tell you guys about it and to read how happy you all are for me!

 

You are so wise, pontalba!   It is important to know where I come from. It was surprisingly important for me to see Martta's face and know more about her. I sometimes talked to my cousins (who are also Martta's bloodline) about her, and how we didn't feel 100% in sync with step-Gramma and how we felt different from our 'step' cousins who had 'our' Grandpa and her 'new' wife, both still alive. I guess seeing our step cousins interact with their Grandma and our step-grandma made me feel ... bereaved? And that always felt bad because it's not like our step-grandma was in any way mean or nasty towards us, and as far as I know, she's never really made a difference between who's her own and who's her 'step-something'.

 

Yes, this is definitely going on my diary!

 

Sounds good to me!  Open the package Sari!!

 

p.s.  I have no insider knowledge, however..........logic dictates!!   

 

Okay, what does the logic dictate?

 

Edit: I mean I know what you are saying what the logic dictates, but how is it logical to open a Christmas present before Christmas??

Edited November 30, 2013 by frankie

[frankie]

Frankie that's so lovely that your relative was able to find all those letters from your grandmother  :smile:A friend of mine helped clear out her grandmother's house when she went into a care home suffering from dementia, she found a lacy nightgown & bundle of letters tied up with ribbon, they were love letters from her grandfather. I thought it was lovely that she got to see a side of her grandparents that she probably would never have known from those findings.

 

I can now definitely relate to her, that is so precious!! It's really wonderful to see a new side to people, too... Me and Dad have

never really talked about her Mum, probably because I never dared ask and he maybe didn't know anything about her before.

 

This morning we photocopied the letters to me. I now have electronic copies (scanned copies) and photocopies of the scanned copies. The photocopies are loads harder to read, but I wanted them all the same I'm going to do a lot of deciphering in the next few days!

 

 

Lovely that you've got some photos of your Grandma.      I can imagine how difficult it must have been to read the letters. 

 

Thank you Janet!   I'm actually a bit surprised by how emotional it was... A friend told me that it probably stirred up a lot of emotions I didn't even know about. I mean I've always been emotional about anything to do with Martta, but the extent of the emotions took me by surprise.

 

It's lovely you got to find out a bit about your grandma Frankie.  It's always interesting learning about family history, even if it does stir up the emotions sometimes.

 

Thanks bookmonkey!

 

Family history is always so fascinating and its good to hear that you have managed to fill some the gaps in your family history.

 

I think this will spark up a further interest in the family affairs...

 

I love family history! Similar to you, I never knew my grandmother, she died when my mum was seven. My mum often tells me stories about her, I

wish I got to know her. I knew my grandfather, he passed at 92. He used to chase us around with his false teeth, I used to sit there trying to pull my teeth out thinking thats what teeth did naturally .

 

Oh Devi!   It's odd how we have such a similar background. I love it how your Mum has been able to tell you stories about her Mum. Although I think it must've been more difficult for her, because she was older when her Mum passed on.. But at least she has stories!

 

I never knew my dads parents, what I have been told was they weren't very nice to my dad. The father was abusive (to what degree not sure), and his step mother never liked my dad. I don't know anything about his biological mother. Even today 9 years after my dad has passed, its a bit of a taboo subject.

 

That's awful :empathy:   It must be so odd knowing nothing about your biological Grandmum, and then knowing what kind of difficult childhood your father had with his Dad and stepmum :(

 

I did find something out rather interesting about my dad about a month ago. He served in the Italian military before he came to Australia. It was a means of getting away from home.

 

I also learned something rather interesting about my Grandpa only a few years ago. He'd been in the war and he'd gotten shot twice. (I don't know if it was bullets or grenade scraps, but he had two wounds from the war)  Dad's rather anti-Russian (Dad is generally a good person but  he's very, very anti-Russian, which kind of disturbs me, and I've confronted him about it, but it clearly stems from Grandpa getting wounded in the war).

 

Your poor dad .

 

I think I'm relatively lucky. I still have all four of my grandparents. I've known three of my greatgrandmothers, when I was a child, I've not met any of my greatgrandfathers.

 

You are very lucky! And I'm very happy for you

[pontalba]

 

 frankie wrote: 

Okay, what does the logic dictate?

 

Edit: I mean I know what you are saying what the logic dictates, but how is it logical to open a Christmas present before Christmas??

 

LOL  If said present would disintegrate, or "go bad" in any way, shape, form or manner, it would be illogical to allow it to do so by not opening said package.  /innocent blinking goin' on/

 

 

My Father's paternal Aunt traced that part of the family back, to around 1100 A.D.  She was quite the genealogist.  She died about 50 years ago, but I well remember how odd she appeared to me.  A large woman always dressed in rather Victorian black.   She'd have been in her 90's at that time.  Anyhow, back before WWI, she brought her daughter to Europe, England and Germany in particular to trace the family lines.  She visited more places than you can imagine.  Quite daring and ahead of her time!  She actually divorced her first husband!  Shocking!

[frankie]

I feel a bit guilty for talking so much about non-literary stuff on my reading log... But I couldn't help but share those things with you guys. I'm not very comfortable talking about my feeling with my parents, so had to get them out somehow... Although I did express a lot of interest towards Grandma's picture and letters. I asked loads of questions from Dad during my visit... When I said I would decipher all the letters (some are hard to read because of the old fashioned handwriting and because the photocopies are quite horrid), he said well maybe people wouldn't care about them so much... To which I said well I fukking care, I want to know! Maybe he thought I wouldn't think it was as important.

 

This is actually a bit funny... Dad's uncle X had heard that Dad had a video of his other uncle A (recently deceased) talking about living in Lapland (=northern Finland) in the old days, and so Dad's uncle X asked if Dad could send him the video via e-mail (to uncle's wife Y, maybe Dad's uncle X doesn't have an e-mail address himself). Dad asked me to help him, he's not very computer literate. Anyhow, we got the video sorted, and then Dad came up with a great idea: in one of the old discovered letters, his uncle A had written to his wife about his brother (uncle X), and how X had just found a nice 17 year old girl (Y) with whom to go out and who might be the one, and how X had perked up a whole lot ever since. So why not include that particular excerpt of that particular letter in the e-mail, for fun! And nostalgia.

 

We know that uncle X married Y eventually and they are still together, but because in the old letter Y is not mentioned by name, we started joking about whether it was possible it wasn't Y after all that was talked in the letter, but some other girl... And how we'd had to send the video and the excerpt to Y because uncle X didn't have an e-mail...

 

We sent the e-mail on Thursday, and by today, we hadn't received a reply saying thank you for the vid etc. So Daddy and I started joking about if it was possible that the woman that was written about in the letter was not missus Y after all but an earlier sweetheart... This is the kind of sense of humour Daddy and I have. Oh I'm such a Daddy's girl.

[frankie]

LOL  If said present would disintegrate, or "go bad" in any way, shape, form or manner, it would be illogical to allow it to do so by not opening said package.  /innocent blinking goin' on/

 

A good point.... But then again, I'm sure Secret Santa wouldn't send me anything that would disintegrate or go bad before D-day... Although this particular Secret Santa did tell me that if I was too eager, I could open it before Christmas.... Oh the dilemma!

 

I've had a few glasses of wine and I'm now getting quite curious myself... I mean I was always curious, but when I got the package from the post office, I was off to Nurmes the next day so it was easy to leave it behind, but now that I'm back to Joensuu, and the package is just standing there in my bookcase, it's harder to ignore it...

 

What's more: when I got home today, I found another Secret Santa package in the mail!!! And I know it's a book, it's from BookDepo....! I don't know who it's from.... !!!

 

My Father's paternal Aunt traced that part of the family back, to around 1100 A.D.  She was quite the genealogist.  She died about 50 years ago, but I well remember how odd she appeared to me.  A large woman always dressed in rather Victorian black.   She'd have been in her 90's at that time.  Anyhow, back before WWI, she brought her daughter to Europe, England and Germany in particular to trace the family lines.  She visited more places than you can imagine.  Quite daring and ahead of her time!  She actually divorced her first husband!  Shocking!

 

To around 1100 A.D?!? That is so cool Your description of your paternal aunt makes me think of this one woman who I read about recently... She's an American who's decided to live her life in the Victorian style, and her hubby is a history buff, too, so they both live like back in the day. She's even written a book about it. Hold on, I'll google...

 

Oh yes, here's an article about her. I've added her book to my wishlist

 

I think one could write a book about your great Aunt! Very daring and shocking...

 

You know, I've always known and realised (I'm not mathematically challenged) that my parents got married only about 5 months before my big bro was born... I've always known it, but I've never broached the subject. However, now that my Dad showed me all these letters from my Grandma, and he also showed me this document about his relatives, which showed that one of his aunts bore an illegitemate child (!!! shock horror ), I then did mention to my parents about how I've done the maths and knew they'd gotten married when my Mum was preggers with my brother... It was great giggles all around

 

I took a picture of my Grandpa and Grandma's wedding photo with my cell phone, and I now have it as the background picture (or what is it called?) on my cell phone. It's nice to see Gramma every time I look at my phone

[frankie]

Oh, and this is relatively book related: I go my early Birthday pressie from parents!!

 

My camera has been malfunctioning for a year now. There's nothing wrong with the actual camera, it's the battery. When I charge it to 100%, it would only take a few minutes to go all empty again. I've not had a functioning camera for a year now, and it's been annoying.

 

So I asked for a new battery for my Bday, and we went and got a new one for me this week, as an early Bday pressie, and wohoo, I can take pictures again! I'm verrrrry happy I will take pics of the current state of my bookcases and Rory drawer tomorrow, perhaps

[frankie]

If your package says fragile I would suggest you open it now..

 

Oh Hayley...   I should've listened to you all the way...!

 

 

I opened the package, everyone, and it was this most beautiful advent calender I've ever seen. Nothing like the Finnish calenders I've always had. It was the Snowman calender! And there was a choccie bar there that read 'frankie' Oh yeah!

 

Hehe I'm so happy I had a few wines and was convinced by pontalba to open the package, now I have a really amazing advent calender!! Just this morning I was 'crying' to my parents about how I didn't have an advent calender... Now I have a beautiful one! I already ate 'frankie And one of the extra snow men. But that was an accident. When I was wiggling the calender to get the frankie bar out, one of the extra snowmen also detached itself and I thought, must eat, must not let it get to waste...

 

Thanks chalie, you are too sweet!

Edit: I took pics so will include those later!

Edited November 30, 2013 by frankie