Finding Petronella
A young woman, a 90-year-old legend, and the journey of a lifetime.
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When I met Petronella van der Moer in 2013 and learned of her legendary 1949 adventure across Finland’s Arctic Circle, somewhere deep down I recognized I’d just touched something I badly needed. Petronella was bold and free in ways that I could only dream of. A wild part of myself had gone missing a long time ago. I set out on that journey to get her back. My 800-mile trek into the Lappish… Read More
I was curious to know what would come out of my pen when I wrote my last “Hello Dear Friend, I love today” letter in Oulu. It was simple, it was everything that felt true, it was this: Hello Dear Friend, I love today. I love today because it is both an ending and a beginning. It has been a little over a month since I arrived in Finland, and what a… Read More
A Difficult Beginning… said the monitor at Oslo International, and I cursed in every language I knew and wished I had read that before I missed my flight to Helsinki. My 7-hour layover had turned into a 12-hour layover and it was mostly my fault. Lost in an article about Petronella, I had been sitting at the gate with my back to the boarding desk, waiting for an announcement over the loudspeaker. I learned later… Read More
Exactly one month from today, I land in Helsinki to begin my adventure! I cannot believe that the one month mark has arrived so soon. It feels like I have been dreaming and learning about this journey for a long time, and yet here I stand, ready or not, with a hard deadline and a date of departure. There are plenty of logistical details that haven’t fallen into place. There are connections… Read More
Tickets to Finland are booked! There are so many exclamation points in my heart right now!!!!!!!!
Excerpt from our first visit in April 2013: “Petronella acknowledges my presence with the slightest of nods. She sits on a throne of pillows, eating applesauce out of a porcelain teacup. Her right hand grasps a tiny spoon, and a ray of sunlight catches the sapphire ring on her finger, sending shadows of blue fire dancing across the cream-colored wall of the houseboat. Slowly, she extends her hand to me, admiring the… Read More
Finding Petronella 