It was rather poignant to see and visit with Uncle Urpo, our father’s youngest brother who is certainly still very much alive and spry at 86. Anna-Maija’s husband Prakash offered to navigate us to Uncle Urpo’s home … yes, he still lives in his own very tidy home. Poignant only because he reminds me so much of my father physically but there ends the resemblance. Uncle Urpo has a more umm … let’s say forthright, bordering on abrupt manner to that of our father’s more gentle one 🙂 … his sense of humour I well remember from our visit 43 years ago and it was a delight to learn it is still intact! After all these years, it was overwhelmingly a joy to sit with him a spell in his home … our Uncle Urpo! The floodgates threatened to overflow more than once during our visit, as we flipped through old pictures of our parents various trips to Finland, all duly photographed and organized somewhat in albums or boxes. Uncle Urpo shared many stories we had never heard before about their early years at our homestead of Heralampi. He helped our father build the foundation for what would be my first home and later, the three brothers constructed the barn together to house the cows, chickens, horses etc. My parents lived in basically a two room house, with an attic, albeit a somewhat roomy two rooms with their five little daughters! More on homestead next post. Uncle Urpo later visited us at Mikko’s cottage with his daughter, our cousin, Kirsti, who I had last seen as a 14 year old!! Cousin Pekka and his wife Anita stopped by for short visit later in he afternoon. Another lively evening sharing and connecting while we served a light luncheon on the patio, enjoying a rather unusual warm evening ….