Stories

A father who served as a deacon in Northern Finland waited impatiently for his missing daughter Chatarinaa to return home, but during the winter months it became obvious that she had perished in the shipwreck. The father’s wish was to find the daughter’s body so that she could receive a Christian burial. He described the daughter’s possible clothing with touching meticulousness to ease her identification. The daughter was lost for ever, but one of her trunks was found. It seems, based on the trunk’s contents, the daughter had been thinking about her family when preparing for the journey. For her father, she had a silk scarf, a Bible in Finnish and a package of Dutch tobacco, for her mother a decorated bonnet and a red apron. (Björkman: Pedersöres julblad 1923)