Heritage

One of the many things that I so enjoy about my children is that they do not hesitate to give me advice.  Ben, Kari, and Nathan, at times, take me aside to offer council.  Early in the year, soon after Kari and Eric’s engagement, I met Nathan for lunch.  “Nate,” I said, “this is going to be a big wedding.  I don’t want to make it some garish show.”

“Just make it a memory, Dad.”   What a wise response from someone so dear.  That phrase was my guide throughout this whole wedding event.

I have spent considerable time since my retirement researching family history.  The more research I did, the more I came to realize that the generations now passed on made considerable commitment to faith, sacrifices and hard work.   I feel called to not allow the legacy of my great grandparents, my grandparents, and my parents to be forgotten.  Kari is named after my grandmother Kari Aune who immigrated with my grandfather Gunder and my then infant father to the U.S. in 1903.  It was important to me to make the celebration of Kari and Eric’s wedding a family event.

I never dreamed that day that the family element would play such a huge role in Kari’s wedding.  I knew that Vicki (Barb’s sister) and Ed would be. They are always there to help.   Kathy, Barb’s sister in law was there as well.  I hoped that my siblings would be there.  They all were, most traveling far from eastern Washington.  Many of our nieces, nephews and their children were there as well.

The first draft guest list was so large that we had to limit it to fit into the church.  Barb’s and my cousins (we have many) were not invitees with four exceptions.  Three Aune cousins, Diane, Karen, and Kathy had shown great interest in Kari and in the family heritage.  I lobbied for their inclusion on the guest list.  The other cousin invited (second cousin) was my frequent contact in Norway.   I advised Kari to send them a “save the date card”  and she did.  Imagine my surprise and delight when I emailed Torgeir to explain the American custom of “save the date” and his response was that they wanted to come.

About that time I took on the task of digitizing my old slides. It had nothing to do the wedding plans but it ended up having a huge role.   I took the 1600 or so slides from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, narrowed them down to 600 select ones, and had them scanned to compact discs.

A few months before the wedding, I received an email from cousin Karen asking of the colors of Kari and Eric’s home.  She wanted to paint them a picture.  Karen is an accomplished artist.  I emailed the colors to her and asked if she would be interested in painting a picture of Auneland.    I am not sure it is on any map, but when Barb and I visited Norway in 1973, specifically my ancestral village of Selbu, we were invited to the Aune home where my father and several previous generations had been born.  They called the area “Auneland”.  It was such a beautiful day and I hiked up the hill to take a picture of the area.  As I looked at the slide this spring, I noted the beauty of the area and asked of myself as to why I had never made a print copy for mounting on our wall.

Karen was very interested in the photo and I quickly emailed it to her.  Her quick response was, “Please, may I paint this?”

And so a painting of Auneland was accomplished.  I encouraged Karen to present it to Kari and Eric during the reception.   And Heidi and Torgeir, Heidi in her traditional dress, were there to explain the details of the painting.

It is about family, present, past and future.

Original photo

Karen's painting