The Summer of '69

My brother and I in Odalen, Norway

I have a dear friend named Eva who is currently living in faraway Australia.  But back in the summer of 1969, we were both young and fancy free and met one another for the first time in her grandmother's home in the Norwegian countryside.

Eva's grandmother was a great friend of my grandparents.  She was a wonderful woman, and a faithful Latter-day Saint, even though she lived far away from any organized branches of the church.  Visiting her on her farm was a lot of fun.

Eva, her grandmother, Margit Wangen (standing); my mother and me

The summer of '69 was one of the best summers ever, in what I think was probably the best year of my life.  I had just graduated from high school and was on my way to college in the fall, and my family got to spend the summer months with my Norwegian grandparents in Oslo.

Eva rowing on the lake

Eva, just slightly older than me, is one of the most beautiful women I've ever met.  She later married a handsome Austrian chef and traveled the world with him.  She has three lovely (grown-up) daughters.  Time sure flies by!  It seems just yesterday that we were kids rowing on that Norwegian lake.

My Dad and I - Daddy rowed us in circles, as I recall!

My father had not been back to Norway since his missionary days in the late 40s, so he was nearly overcome with emotion to be back again.

Me, Margit, Mamma, and Jay

My grandfather, Einar, and my brother

I'm so grateful to Eva for posting these pictures for me!  It's fun to be able to share them with you.  This was one of the last summers I was still taller than my brother!  It was also the last summer we saw my grandmother before she passed away (she was too ill to take the trip to Odalen and passed in 1970). 

In life you get family, and then there are the friends who feel like family.  I've been blessed with a lot of both.