103 - Anni Cederberg - Helsinki, Finland
Posted by: 
Torgut
N 60° 10.287 E 024° 54.656
35V E 384092 N 6672338
This headstone can be spotted in the main cemetery of Helsinki, capital city of Finland.
Waymark Code: WMKX9A
Location: Finland
Date Posted: 06/07/2014
Views: 33
The name is Anni Cederberg and she died whe she was 103. Now she has a nice black headstone in the main cemetery of Helsinki, together with three more people.
Some information on the internet make me suspect that her father was Berndt Isak Breitholtz (1848-1904)and her mother was Hilda Maria Breitholtz (1846 - 1911). Apparently she had 6 sisters and 2 brothers.
Father's picture: (
visit link)
Mother's picture: (
visit link)
When Anni was born there was no Finland as an independent country; it was part or Russia, after being ceded to this country by Sweden, following their military defeat in 1809.
Anni was only 9 years old when tsar Nicholas II starts a policy "Russification" of Finland, imposing Russian as the official language and drafting Finn men to Russian Army.
In 1917 Finland declares independence. It was a good thing for the Finns that the Communist Revolution happened in Russia because they made it. Anni would be 27 years by then, perhaps she celebrated this event as most Finns should had.
Put the festive atmosphere was short; in 1918 there is a civil war opposing Communist elements to more conservative forces and General Manerheim emerges as a natural leader.
For a while there were no determinant events around Anni, but she witnessed the Second World War. Probably she didn't see any action but she must had been affected by the Russian invasion and all the carnage taking place until 1944. She was 51 years old by then.
The last determinant even Anni witnessed - if she was still able to understand what was going on - was the collapse of Soviet Union, which happened when she was 99 years old. She died fours years later.