,1997 A year in the sign of the stars and stripes! It has been an intensive and exiting year!  Maria finished her year as an foreign exchange student in Boston  We celebrated and had 5 weeks vacation in the US  Mattias reviewed his friends in Virginia from 93-94  We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on August 26  Grandfather, Albin Lindström, was 100 years old on November 1  I was half of it in September Maria had been an exchange student at the family Uhlig in Boston. The family consists besides Anna and Paul of 4 boys from 0 to 13 years. She has had an excellent time. The Uhligs have taken real good care of her. The Uhlig family lives in Kansas. In 96-97 their home was in Newton, Boston. Maria got the best care you can ever have. The Uhligs stood up for her and made her feel real comfortable. For Maria it is not unusual that expenses are bigger than income. She compensated that by working in a baker shop. We at home have felt very safe to have the Uhligs as host for our daughter. Thank you Uhlig family!!! The rest of the family planned to come over when Maria had her exam. Maria’s best friend, Linda Nilsson, thought it would be exiting with the U.S. Maybe she was influenced by all Maria’s letters. Well, Linda came with us. She is a very sweet and soft girl. Mattias went away 14 days before us. He saw his friends and school in Winchester with neighborhood. An interesting event took place in 96. We had been connected to Internet and looked for different contacts. One of them was Ohrstrom. The Ohrstrom’s roots are from south of Skåne, Skivarp. They had planned a reunion in August in Sweden. I am an Ohrstrom on my grandfather’s side. Could we be related? Was it possible to review relatives via Internet? It is easier to find a needle in a haystack. Well, Lars Ohrstrom was born in Öremölla in 1766. Here our branches reached each other 230 years later. We were invited to participate in their reunion, which was fantastic; you Americans are so hospitable. What is more amazing is that one part of the Ohrstrom lives about 30 minutes from the place where Mattias stayed in 93-94. The world is not always so big. Mattias was invited to visit the Ohrstroms during his stay in Winchester. When we had told him our plans for the rest of our U.S. vacation, Mr. Ohrstrom invited us to live in New York for 5 nights. Thank you for that. We really appreciate your hospitality. Mr. Ohrstrom impressed on Mattias very much. He came to me and wanted to talk. I understood that it was important. ”Dad, when I get older I want to be just like Mr. Ohrstrom, he is so charismatic and generous. I answered Mattias: ”You’ve got a fine ideal for your life”. We all saw each other again in Boston. Finally together all 4 of us and Linda. We had planned to visit the Niagara Falls. We rent a car and drove to it. We passed The Fingerlakes. More about that later on. Niagara is fantastic! Everything is so big in the U.S. Some interesting days later we drove back to Boston. While the youngsters had fun on their own, Lena and I visited the Family Gosselin in Hartford. This family had contacted us via Internet. We are related via my grandmother. Gosselin found our address: http://www.familytreemaker,com/ftm/p/e/r/Sven-G-Persson/index.html. Fabulous! Thank you for welcoming us! The meeting was short and intensive. We apologize for not having had the opportunity to thank you for your hospitality. We will soon do that! Once again, thank you! Another Internet friend Russel Johnson from Tucson, Arizona, visited his daughters in the East Coast. Believe it or not - we saw this family too! Mr. Russel’s father was born in Hörby, about 10 miles from our home. Thank you for taking time to drive to Boston. In Boston we meat one more Internet friend, Douglas and Priscilla Leith. They invited us to there home. We have a short but interest meeting. Thank you for that!!! Back in Bos
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