Today was spent all around Suomussalmi. I had some oatmeal and berries for breakfast. A little later in the summer it is possible to walk around anywhere in the forests and pick Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries, and Cloudberries for free. So everyone around has a great number of these handpicked berries. There is forest everywhere; just driving through town it is hard to see any homes since forest lines every street. Almost all of buildings in the town were destroyed in 1939 during the Winter War. A large battle between Finnish and Russians occurred inside and around this town.
Today we visited the House Museum. It includes an 18th century local house and other buildings and objects used by people living around here in the past. This gave me a better idea of how my ancestors lived here. Seemed very tough, for example, making bread from the bark of a Birch tree.
Next we visited the cemetery in town and saw the grave of my great-great-grandparents (Vilhelmi and Eeva-Stiina Matero). Very strange to see a tombstone with Matero carved into it. Afterwards, we visited Kaarlo Matero, who is 82 years old and a relative. He took us to the sight of the old Matero house, which isn’t standing anymore. It is a few miles from town, down a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere. I learned it is a 115 hectare property. Kaarlo said the home was already very old when he was born. This was where Vilhelmi Matero and his family lived. Kaarlo says he remembers when Rudolph (my grandfather) and John Matero (my great-grandfather) from Detroit, Michigan visited this same place many years ago.
Next we visited Kaarlo’s sister, Eeva. It seems this home is also in the middle of nowhere. Outside is a small sauna building, potatoe field, and Finnish flag. They showed me a few old photos and told me that Vilhemi Matero was a farmer and a tailor and spent much time in Russia. Suomussalmi is very close to Russia; in fact the old house is just 12 miles from the border.
We returned to Mika’s cottage for the evening because it is still Juhannus today. Perfect weather, lots of food (freshly caught fish and sausage), and a hot sauna probably made it the perfect day.