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.
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| Original photo |
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| Karen's painting |
