FINNS: An Oral History- Keeping Services - Lorna (Niemela) Letourneau
New Ipswich Historical Society
FINNS: An Oral History of Finnish-Americans in New Hampshire’s Monadnock Region
Excerpted from FINNS: An Oral History... by Patricia Kangas Ktistes, 1997, all rights reserved.
Lorna (Niemela) Letourneau
There is richness in our heritage—not just among Finnish families, but other nationalities, too. Our generation, in comparison to now; it’s really sad what has been lost. There’s not that stability God intended us to have. Why do you think the Enemy works so hard to break up families? Because God ordains families.
I grew up in this unbelievable security. If my mother was away, my aunt Martha was there. She lived in the next house and they had a party line and we knew the rings. Later, if one of us came back home to live for awhile—if I made a phone call—there would be Aunt Martha on the line. It would ring and I’d have to say, “Aunt Martha, it’s okay, it’s for me.” She’d say, “Oh, Lorna! I didn’t know you were home!” I’m like, ‘Oh, brother!’
My father John Niemela was born in 1899 in Fitchburg and he was very handsome. My parents met when he came up here and took over the farm. My father also worked at D.D. Bean’s in Jaffrey. He became a lay preacher in the Apostolic church. My mother didn’t talk much about religion. But it really hurt her when he was kicked out of the Apostolic church. One of the things I truly respect him for is saying to my mother, “Now don’t you be talking like that because they kicked me out. We must forgive.” And he upheld that. It was a great lesson to me. He continued preaching; if anyone came to visit, he would speak the Word of God.
They had services at home when I was young. I remember sitting on the stairs, listening to them going on in their Finn language. You didn’t know what they were talking about. You were thinking, “Oh, no, this is going to go on all night!” But I remember seeing these beautiful tables spread. You see children nowadays—they can’t even be taught manners because their parents are so dragged out. My mother had 10 children but she instilled in us we weren’t to touch that table until everyone else had gone. She said, “I don’t care if there’s nothing left. They are our guests.” It was a thing that we respected.