During the Viljandi Folk Festival I met a women by the name of Ingrid Meister, from Tallinn, Estonia. She was part of a cultural-folk-dance group from Tallinn who was performing at the Folk Festival. During a dance in the town park, her group invited spectators to join the group in their dance...I joined and as a result made a new and wonderful friend.
After the performances, we spent hours talking in a cafe...I learned so much from this kind woman. She shared her experiences during the Soviet occupation. "They took away our freedom but not our dance and music and this kept us hopeful during those difficult years of oppression."
During the German Nazi occupation, her father was forced to join the German Army or be shot. A year later he was killed in a battle with the Russians. Her mother was determined to find his body and eventually discovered the mass burial site. Digging up the mass grave, she found her husband's decomposed body, recognizing him by the vest he was wearing when he died. He had promised her that he would always wear this vest that she had knitted for him. She hid his body under straw and slowly carried the body back home for a decent burial.
After the war, the Russians took over Estonia. Ingrid's mother remarried and together they lived quietly on a farm. One day the Russian police arrived at their farm and took her husband away...to Siberia. He was considered a threat to the Soviet government. (Thousands of Estonians were shipped to Siberia, never to be seen again).
Ingrid's mother is still alive...her spirit undefeated by her difficult life. My friend Ingrid runs a high school in Tallinn. We continue to be good friends and e-mail each other weekly. I plan to visit her this summer.