IRJA HIGGINBOTHAM: I am Irja Lisa Higginbotham, mother of Thomas.
THOMAS HIGGINBOTHAM: Well, Mom. We're living in a world that's really full of conflict. And you were born into conflict in Finland kind of soon after the Winter War.
IRJA HIGGINBOTHAM: I remember air raids. I remember airplanes dropping down pamphlets. Then I remember the soldiers coming back from the front, one of them was a bicycle troop. Up till I was about 14 or 15. I was afraid the sound of airplanes and the news. Those were scary times.
THOMAS HIGGINBOTHAM: How did the conflict affect your direct family?
IRJA HIGGINBOTHAM: My uncle was missing in action. My parents lived in Karelia, South Eastern Finland, and they had to leave their home very quickly when the Russians were coming in. Father, he was working for the railroads, he ran from the trains and told my mother, "You have 20 minutes. I think this train is gonna get through." So she grabbed some things for the baby. And for a couple of weeks, my dad didn't know where Mother had ended up. And Mother didn't know where Dad was.
But they ended up in a little town of Joensuu, and we lived in a small one bedroom apartment. There were six of us children and three children could sleep on beds. If you were there early, you got the bed. If not, you slept on the floor.
But I didn't ever think that I was missing anything. You know, it was just ... that was life. We were okay. You couldn't fight. Because there was no space. And we didn't fight over things. We had no toys. We were close. And uh ... and still are.
So 1963 I was accepted to University of Utah. And so I left. I told my parents, "I don't know if I'm gonna come back." And it was hard for me.
I came to Salt Lake City and met my husband. I had seen him in Finland. But if somebody had told me that I was going to marry him, I says, "Oh, you must be crazy." Anyway, it was a good thing. He was ah, very honest and great integrity, and very smart. That was one of the things that endeared me to him.
THOMAS HIGGINBOTHAM: So tell us about some of the experiences in your, kind of, your early married years.
IRJA HIGGINBOTHAM: I was a teacher for two years as fifth grade. At that age, they started getting interested in boys and girls and I even got a love letter from one of the boys in the class.
THOMAS HIGGINBOTHAM: Did you feel like a foreigner?
IRJA HIGGINBOTHAM: Not really. I didn't teach my children Finnish and they kind of didn't like that. They wanted to. But I was thinking at that time, only 4 million people spoke Finnish, so ....
THOMAS HIGGINBOTHAM: But you and Dad had your own secret language while we were growing up.
IRJA HIGGINBOTHAM: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. When we didn't want the children to know what we were talking about, we spoke Finnish to each other.
THOMAS HIGGINBOTHAM: Mom, this has been awesome.
IRJA HIGGINBOTHAM: I have a son right there and daughter in law who take good care of me.
THOMAS HIGGINBOTHAM: We love everything about you and everything that you've accomplished. And thanks so much for sitting down and talking today.
IRJA HIGGINBOTHAM: Thank you.
