#52Ancestors: Week 2 – Favorite Photo
I have but a few photos of my maternal grandmother, Alma Tusa Knihtila. She was an immigrant from Finland coming to America with her older brother, Arne Tusa in 1909. She was 22 years old. Before Alma left Finland, her mother, Sanna Tusa, had a portrait taken of herself and her three daughters, Alma, Hilja and Hulda. I was given this photo a couple years ago and was amazed as it was the first time I ever saw my grandmother as a young lady! She was so very beautiful! She did live across the alley from us while I was young but I don’t remember but little of her as she passed away when I was six years old in 1952. She was only 65 years old then.
My next favorite photo of my grandmother Alma is one I found by accident in my mother’s old album, tucked in the back. Here Alma is sitting on the left side of the bench and three of her Finnish lady friends have come for coffee and a chat dressed in their Sunday best complete with fancy hats! My grandmother had the charge of babysitting that day her friends came and the girl on the blanket is me with my older brother, Arthur. We all had to pose for the picture!
This picture was taken around 1949. There are a few things I do remember about my ever so kind grandma Alma. She would take my brother and I regularly to the sauna and get us squeaky clean then buy us an Orange Crush soda from a big red Coca-Cola dispenser. She went with us to the Finnish Lutheran Church on Sundays and made sure we went to Sunday School. She had huge lilac bushes in front of her house and I used to pick bouquets for her and she would always act so surprised and pleased when I gave them to her.
She had a huge weaving loom in her barn where she would weave beautiful rugs from rags. I would sit on the floor next to it while she ran the loom and I would wind strips of rags into balls. My grandmother had soft brown eyes and very long hair that she would braid and then wind around her head. At night, she would brush her hair out over and over. I have other recollection of her but this picture of her and her friends is precious because it stirs old memories. I can almost hear them chatting in Finnish and laughing together!
My grandmother was beautiful inside and out and I cherish her memory! You can read more about this amazing person at Mother’s Day: My grandmother Alma
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The Lyons Tracks 